Only 25 students pay fees for PG medical admissions 

S. SENTHALIR
PUDUCHERRY, April 21, 2018 00:00 IST



Final tally:Centac Coordinator (Admission) P.T. Rudra Goud completing the formalities at the Centac office on the last day of admission to PG medical colleges.

L-G says medical colleges violating rules will face serious consequences

On the last day of admission to PG medical and dental colleges for the students allotted seats in the first round counselling, only 25 students paid the fees.

Nearly 147 students were allotted seats for PG medical and dental colleges in Puducherry through Centralised Admission Committee (Centac) in the first round of counselling.

The second round of counselling is expected to begin soon. As on Thursday, nearly four students had filed complaints with the Centac grievance cell over the denial of admission to private medical institutions.

Centac Coordinator (Admission) P.T. Rudra Goud said that admissions for all students who have paid the fees through Centac will be ensured.

“All the grievances of students will be addressed to help them in admissions without any hurdles,” he said.

Following the complaints from medical students over denial of admission by private medical institutions, Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi warned on Friday that medical colleges violating the rules would face serious legal consequences.

Talks tough

Chief Secretary Ashwani Kumar said: “We should resort to sealing one of their main premises which may cater to first year students. Also, the Health department should let the colleges know of these consequences.”

Health Secretary V. Candavelou held a review meeting with Mr. Goud. “The admission list will be published immediately and all the measures will be taken to admit them in respective colleges.

“This time the consequences for non-compliance, if any, will be very severe including contempt, criminal and administrative action against the college,” he said.

Ms. Bedi met the newly appointed Chairman of Fee Committee for Medical Colleges N. Authinathan, former Madras High Court Judge, to check on the arbitrariness of fee structures in medical institutions.

Lalu seeks bail on medical grounds

Sanjay Sahay TNN 21.04.2018

Ranchi: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad on Friday pleaded before the Jharkhand high court for provisional bail on medical grounds. His advocate has appealed to the court, saying Lalu needs three more months for treatment of various illnesses, related to heart and kidney, in advanced medical centres.

Lalu, who has been convicted in four fodder scam cases to date, is currently undergoing treatment in AIIMS, Delhi, under judicial custody.

The RJD chief had filed a petition for provisional bail in all the three fodder scam cases in which special CBI courts have convicted him during the last four months.

Lalu’s lawyer Chitttranjan Sinha said, “We have appealed to the court, stating that Lalu has ulcers in his rectum which could turn fatal if infected.”

He said Lalu’s kidneys were 60% damaged, adding that his blood pressure and sugar levels were also not under control.

“We pointed out that AIIMS reports, too, have stated that Lalu’s blood pressure was fluctuating and his sugar level was also not under control. We argued that Lalu needed some time for getting his blood pressure treated at the Asian Heart Institute, Mumbai, where he had undergone heart surgery. He also needed treatment for his kidney at Medanta hospital,” Sinha said. 

High fees in pvt med colleges account for low quality intake 

With Up To ₹1Cr For Course, Only Rich Can Afford Medical Studies

Rema.Nagarajan @timesgroup.com   21.04.2018

There are only 60,000-odd MBBS seats in India, so how does someone ranked 4 lakh or more in NEET get admission even if he or she qualified? With all colleges having to go by the NEET ranking in admissions, this seems an impossible situation, but the high fees charged by most private colleges make it possible. That topples merit by forcing thousands of students with high scores to forego seats, allowing poor performers with money to get admission.

Take admissions to colleges in Punjab — eight of them under the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, three government-run and four private ones and a private university. The student with the highest NEET marks among those admitted into the private university had lower marks than the last student admitted to the open category in each of the government colleges. In the private university, the fees for the MBBS course are ₹64 lakh compared to just ₹4 lakh in the government colleges.

While data for all states was not available, a similar pattern was evident in Tamil Nadu as well. In fact, even within private institutions, those who got into the government quota of private colleges had the best scores, while private universities saw candidates with much lower scores gaining admission. It’s no coincidence that the tution fees for the government quota in private colleges is fixed at ₹4 lakh for the course compared to roughly a crore in the private universities.

To get a better sense of how exorbitant fees are lowering the standards of intake in medical colleges, consider this. If all 60,000-odd seats were in government colleges, where the fees are not prohibitive, the last rank to get in would have been at worst in the range of 80,000 even assuming that one-third of the top 60,000 ranks opted out for various reasons. The 80,000th rank in NEET 2017 had a percentile score of about 92.6 and marks of 399 out of 720, or about 55.4%.

Experts have suggested 1:3 as the ideal seats to eligible students ratio. That would have meant fixing the percentile cutoff so that about 1.8 lakh qualify. In 2017, the cut-off would then have been 83.4 percentile, or roughly 295 out of 720 marks (41%). The actual ratio achieved by the 50th percentile cut-off for general students and 40th percentile for reserved students was close to 1:10 with the lowest ranks even among general students getting as little as 131out of 720 or 18%.

“Things have become much better with NEET, which stopped the completely unregulated MBBS admissions happening earlier. But to ensure that only meritorious students get in, the fees of these teaching shops that pass off as colleges have to be regulated so that students who perform poorly don’t use money power to defeat poor or middle class students who have scored much better. The government also needs to open more medical colleges,” said Dr Raj Bahadur, vice-chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences.

Jawaharlal Shanmugam, who has filed a public interest petition in the Madras high court seeking fee regulation in all medical colleges, pointed out that when NEET was introduced, many private colleges increased their tuition fees to offset the ‘loss’ of capitation fees. “Thus they ensured that meritorious students without money would never get admission. The tuition fee is fixed arbitrarily to cater to only rich or super rich students. How can the government allow this when the Supreme Court had made NEET mandatory for even private colleges and deemed universities to ensure that medical admissions are merit-based?,” asked Shanmugam. 

Devanga college scandal: Court grants CB-CID 5-day custody of Nirmala Devi

TIMES NEWS NETWORK   21.04.2018

Madurai: A judicial magistrate court at Sattur in Virudhunagar district on Friday granted five days custody of Aruppukkottai college assistant professor Nirmala Devi, who is at the centre of the Madurai Kamaraj University scandal, to the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID).

She is accused of luring four college girls to offer sexual favours to top officials of the university.

The CB-CID had filed a petition before the Sattur JM II court on Thursday seeking nine days custody of Nirmala Devi.

There were tense moments on Friday when she was greeted by slogan-raising members of AIDWA and other womens organisations and protests by advocates demanding proper inquiry into the issue, as she arrived from Madurai Central Prison. She was later guided to the court with the help of additional police personnel.

Judicial magistrate Geetha granted the CB-CID Devi’s custody for five days from 2pm on Friday till 2pm on April 25.

The police were expected to keep her in Virudhunagar and bring her to the Madurai court during the course of the inquiry. The CB-CID had sought nine days custody but was given only five days.

Meanwhile, IAS officer R Santhanam, who is heading the one-man commission into the matter, and the two women professors picked to assist him, Dr Kamali and Dr S Thyageswari, arrived at Devanga Arts College in Aruppukottai on Friday and conducted inquiries.

Representatives of the college’s management as well as some faculty members and students were questioned. Santhanam said that the four students with whom Nirmala Devi had the controversial telephonic conversation would be questioned.

A person from Aruppukottai had submitted a written petition to the commission which would also be taken up for inquiry, he added.

The commission would carry out its investigations in Madurai on Saturday.

On the other hand, a team of CB-CID officials also arrived at MKU and conducted inquiries in connection with the case.

GRIP TIGHTENS: Nirmala Devi taken to the court with additional police help

Asst prof’s msgs to girls under lens

Chennai: In a major development in relation to the case, WhatsApp messages sent by arrested assistant professor Nirmala Devi to many girl students, asking them to send ‘good morning’ and ‘good evening’ messages in capital letters if they agree to the ‘task’ given by her, is under scrutiny. The CB-CID team investigating the case, led by superintendent of police Rajeshwari, is looking into the messages. The police personnel are also scrutinising the contents of the messages for valuable inputs. TNN

Flout admission norms, face action: Bedi to pvt med colleges

Bosco.Dominique@timesgroup.com   21.04.2018

Puducherry: Lieutenant governor Kiran Bedi has warned the private medical colleges and deemed universities flouting norms in the admission of students in postgraduate medical and dental courses of stringent legal and administrative action.

The lieutenant governor in a WhatsApp message on Friday further warned that any violations on the part of the private colleges and deemed universities in the admission of students cleared by the centralised admission committee will lead to ‘serious consequences’. Bedi, who held a meeting on Friday to review the ongoing postgraduate medical and dental admission, appreciated the territorial officials for launching all-out efforts in ensuring fair and transparent admission process.

“This time (the academic year 2018-19) the consequences for non-compliance (by the private medical colleges and deemed universities), if any, will be very severe including contempt, criminal and administrative action against the colleges,” Bedi said while quoting an official.

She said a senior official went a step further and insisted on sealing one of the premises of the colleges that flout the rules. “We should resort to sealing one of their main premise which may cater to first year students... also the health department should let the colleges know of these consequences,” Bedi said while quoting the senior official.

Centac coordinator (admissions) Rudra Goud said 17 postgraduate medical seats (12 under government quota and five under management quota) and eight postgraduate dental seats (seven under government quota and one under management) were filled after round one of the admission process that concluded by 3pm on Friday. 

Panel set up to frame norms to stop sexual harassment
VCs Of Madras Univ, TNOU Also On Board

Nivedha.Selvam1@timesgroup.com 21.04.2018

Coimbatore: In wake of the Devanga college scandal, the higher education department has formed a committee to draft guidelines to prevent sexual harassment in educational institutions.

“The committee will submit the guidelines on Monday. The higher education department, in consultation with the higher education minister, would finalise the guidelines. It would be issued to the universities and colleges within a week,’’ higher education secretary Sunil Paliwal told reporters here on Friday.

“The committee has vicechancellors of Madras University and Tamil Nadu Open University as members. It is expected to recommend detailed guidelines to avoid suspected exploitations of students like in Devengar College in Arupukottai. A strong grievance redressal mechanism would be established in the college-level. The committee would study the problems faced by students as well as staff and would also take into account University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines while preparing the report. The committee members would also consult the higher education minister on drafting the guidelines. We are also considering to establish a formal mechanism at state-level,” Paliwal said.

As the VCs of Alagappa University and Annamalai University are getting ready to retire, the department has already formed a search committee as part of the VC selection procedure, Paliwal said, adding that apart from the prescribing qualification changes, the selection procedure was not changed.

About ₹3crore has been allotted to construct a new building for the English department and computer application department at Bharathiar University. Multiple centres worth ₹15.5 crores are under construction on the university premises.

With the sanction given by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), the university is to get ₹20crore under second phase of the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) fund. It had received ₹20 crore under phase one.

No more paper work, pay court fee online now 

21.04.2018  times of india

Chennai: Chief Justice of the Madras high court Indira Banerjee on Friday inaugurated estamping facilities for the court’s principal and Madurai bench. With this, advocates and litigants can pay court fee through online and offline modes without stamp papers.TN is the eighth state to implement such a facility. “With the new system in place, delays in filing cases due to non-availability of stamp papers can be avoided. The facility enables anyone to pay court fee from the comfort of their home,” the CJ said. TNN