Booking unreserved tickets just a click away 

Special Correspondent
Chennai, April 14, 2018 00:00 IST




No more waiting:The app has been launched to avoid long queues at unreserved booking counters.R. Ravindran

Southern Railway launches mobile app as part of mission to save at least 25 tonnes of paper

The Southern Railway on Friday embarked on a mission to save at least 25 tonnes of paper with the launch of an app that will enable passengers to book unreserved tickets across the zone. The paperless ticketing facility was earlier available only for the Chennai suburban sector.

The mobile app — utsonmobile — can be downloaded on any smart phone having access to Google Play Store and Apple Store. With unreserved passengers constituting 91% of the railway’s passenger business, Southern Railway is targeting at least two million passengers visiting unreserved ticket counters every day. There would be no additional charges for booking the unreserved tickets through the mobile app. Payment should be made through R-wallet, the railway’s exclusive e-payment wallet, though.

“Tickets can be booked within a 5-km radius of the station from which the passenger intends to travel,” a senior railway official said on Friday.

Geo-fencing facility

To avoid passengers booking platform tickets/unreserved tickets on seeing the ticket examiners, the app has been enabled with a geo-fencing technology that would prevent the user from booking the tickets from railway stations or on trains.

A minimum of 25 m distance from the railway station and a maximum of 5 km is the functional radius of the mobile app. Asked about the reason for the 5-km restriction, the official said a passenger booking an unreserved ticket has to use it within one hour. “This facility is to avoid long queues at unreserved booking counters. A passenger can purchase a ticket while on the move to the station to catch a train. He/she can upgrade to a higher class depending upon the availability by paying the extra fare as applicable,” the official added.

Passengers would require a one-time registration to activate the mobile app.

No proof of identity is required as the downloaded ticket is sufficient authority to travel

Uber drivers not co’s employees: US court 

TIMES OF INDIA 14..4.2018

A US judge in Philadelphia has ruled that limousine drivers for Uber Technologies Inc are independent contractors and not the company’s employees under federal law, the first ruling of its kind on a crucial issue for the company.

US district Judge Michael Baylson on Wednesday said Uber does not exert enough control over drivers for its limo service, UberBLACK, to be considered their employer under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The drivers work when they want to and are free to nap, run personal errands, or smoke cigarettes in between rides, Baylson said.

The legal classification of workers has been a major issue for “gig economy” companies that rely on independent contractors. Uber, in particular, has been hit with dozens of lawsuits in recent years claiming that its drivers are employees and are entitled to minimum wage, overtime, and other legal protections not afforded to contractors. An Uber spokeswoman said the company is pleased with the decision.

Jeremy Abay, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said he would appeal the ruling to the 3rd US circuit court of appeals. The 3rd circuit would be the first federal appeals court to consider whether Uber drivers are properly classified as independent contractors.

Many of the cases filed against Uber have been sent to arbitration, but the plaintiffs in the this case were among a small minority of drivers who had opted not to sign arbitration agreements with the company. REUTERS

Number of H-1B visa filings falls for second year in a row 

TIMES OF INDIA 14.04.2018

Mumbai: The number of applications for the H-1B visa, which is heavily relied upon by India’s tech industry for on-site projects in the US, has fallen for the second year in a row.

For the 2018-19 season (FY2019), which would permit successful visa applicants to work in the US from October 1, 2018, the US agency received 1.90 lakh applications as against nearly two lakh applications in the previous season. This fall of 8,902 applications — or 4.5% as compared to 2017-18 — is minuscule, given the protectionist rhetoric of the Trump administration. While large Indian tech companies have over the past few months ramped up hiring of locals in the US, the interest in H-1B visas has not waned.

Each year, since 2013-14, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had to resort to a lottery mechanism as the number of applications far exceeded annual quotas. The number had hit a peak in 2016-17 with nearly 2.4 lakh applications. If current year’s figures are compared with this peak statistic, it is a decline of nearly 20%. In its latest release, USCIS states that on April 11, it used a computer-generated random selection process (lottery) to select enough H-1B applications to meet the caps. Two lotteries were run. The first selected enough applications to meet the master’s cap of 20,000. All unselected master’s cap petitions then became part of the random selection process for the 65,000 cap, explains USCIS in its statement. Thus, the second lottery chose from roughly 1.70 lakh applications. TNN

3RD JUDGE ARRESTED IN A MONTH

Hyd judge, two lawyers held for taking ₹7.5L bribe

TIMES NEWS NETWORK   14.04.2018

Hyderabad: A first additional metropolitan sessions judge of Hyderabad and two advocates were arrested by anti-corruption bureau (ACB) sleuths for accepting ₹7.5 lakh bribe from the family of an engineering student to grant bail. Acting on high court orders, ACB registered a bribery case against the accused and raided their houses late on Thursday before carrying out arrests.

In November 2017, advocate T Sriranga Rao complained to the high court against first additional metropolitan sessions judge, Nampally, S Radhakrishna Murthy, alleging the judge was indulging in corruption in granting bail and passing judgments.

The complainant also alleged the judge accepted ₹7.5 lakh bribe through advocates for granting bail to a student, M Dattu, who was arrested under NDPS Act at Ameerpet excise police station.

Dattu’s mother had to sell her gold jewellery to

mobilise funds for the bribe, the ACB chargesheet stated. This is the third arrest of a judge by ACB in recent past on high court order.

The high court had ordered an internal inquiry headed by the metropolitan sessions judge, Hyderabad, and referred the matter to ACB.

After the probe, the high court directed ACB to register a case against the judge, S Radhakrishna Murthy.

As per orders, ACB registered a case of criminal misconduct against S Radhakrishna Murthy and two advocates, K Srinivasa Rao and G Satish Kumar under Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, on April 11.

After registration of case, ACB obtained search warrants and conducted searches at houses of the judge at Alwal on Thursday night.

During searches, ACB sleuths found incriminating evidence, including cell phones used by accused to communicate with each another.

During investigation, ACB officials found advocates K Srinivasa Rao and G Satish Kumar accepted bribe in two instalments on behalf of the judge on October 31, 2017, to grant bail to M Tech student, M Dattu. After receiving bribe money, the judge granted bail to Dattu on November 1, 2017.

The judge and the two advocates were produced in court and they were sent in judicial remand till April

26. This is the third arrest of a judge by ACB on high court orders in a month.

No migration certificate for admissions within state univs 
 
Perk Not For Students Outside TN

Sambath.Kumar@timesgroup.com

Trichy: Students migrating within state universities need not submit migration certificates any more. This is to avoid unwarranted delays in issuing the certificate and follows the realisation that the information in the certificate is almost redundant since it is already present in the transfer certificate. The new system will come into effect this academic year and students need not wait for the certificate from their respective universities.

“We found during verification that all the details that a migration certificate would have are present in the transfer and degree certificates of the students,” said secretary to the higher education department, Sunil Paliwal. “We carried out discussions with vice-chancellors and also the director of school education but could not understand the purpose of this migration certificate. Finding it irrelevant, we decided that we need not insist on migration certificate within the state universities that come under the state higher education department. Orders have been passed after taking consent from the higher education minister,” he said. Bharathidasan University syndicate recently resolved to exempt students seeking admission in the university department or affiliated colleges from other universities within the state from submitting migration certificate.

If students had to apply for migration certificate after completing their course, they had to come all the way to the university to which the college was affiliated and the process was tedious too. “Many of the students have to wait for over a couple of weeks and even beyond to get the migration certificate. This is mostly due to administrative delay caused by the clerical staff,” said a staff member of the administrative wing of a city college. Delay in obtaining migration certificate often cost the students their seat in other state universities, Paliwal said.

The decision was arrived at after members of the syndicate of some of the state universities raised the issue with the higher education department. However, the rule is not applicable for those seeking admission from outside the state. The same is the case with students from the state seeking admission to universities outside the state.


GREAT RELIEF

State govt to repeal BEd degree order 

TIMES OF INDIA 14.04.2018

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government has decided to repeal its order declaring BEd degrees obtained from Vinayaka Missions University, Salem as not equal to a degree obtained from Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University, Chennai, from the academic year 2015-16 for the purpose of recruitment through Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB).

Sunil Paliwal, higher education secretary who appeared in court in view of a contempt plea, made this submission. He further submitted that appointment orders would be issued to six persons who were declared ineligible in view of the GO.

The court directed the officials to produce the said appointment orders by April 19. TNN

Tougher tests await DL, LLR applicants

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com 14.04.2018

Chennai: Candidates applying for driving licences and learner’s licences (LLR) from regional transport offices (RTOs) will soon have to sweat alot harder to pass their tests.

The state road safety council on Friday resolved to double the number of questions in the objective test for getting an LLR and upgrade the question bank. The council has also told the RTOs to conduct an oral test for licence applicants on rules to be adopted while driving at night and at hill stations. Besides this, applicants will have to demonstrate a predrive vehicle safety check.

These reforms are part of the transport department’s efforts to regulate the driving licence system to cut the road accident rate.

At present, the objective test for LLR applicants contains 10 questions and most RTOs conduct it as a token exercise. Moreover, the questions from the question bank are repetitive in nature. The evaluation process is lenient and even those who score 50% are declared passed, said an official. “To eliminate this shortcoming, the state transport department would soon be coming out with an upgraded question bank containing more than 500 questions from topics related to road safety, road signs and driving theories,” he added.

RTOs told not to be lenient with test evaluation

A total of 20 questions would be selected from the question bank on a random basis.

As far as licence applicants are concerned, candidates are expected to demonstrate a pre-drive vehicle safety check before undergoing the actual driving tests at testing tracks. A pre-drive check includes checking the brakes, belts, position of the rear-view mirrors and headlights.

Besides this, an oral test on rules to be followed while driving at night and hill stations would be conducted alongside other mandatory tests.

The RTOs have been instructed not to be lenient while evaluating the test results, the official added. LLR applicants will have to score at least 60% to clear the written test. Candidates who have failed the tests can reappear after a week (for LLR) or a month (for driving licences).

The road safety council has also resolved to make rules pertaining to speed governors more stringent. The council said it would not go soft on commercial vehicles without speed governors.

RTOs across the state have stopped issuing fitness and registration certificates to commercial vehicles without the speed-control devices. The sale of spurious and old equipment has increased as a consequence.