Forced marriage: SC lets neta’s daughter cut ties

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: 08.05.2018

Giving primacy to free will, the Supreme Court on Monday allowed an influential Karnataka politician’s daughter to break free from matrimonial and parental ties and live her life the way she chose to. The 26-year-old woman had fled home complaining that she was forced into marriage against her wish.

In a dramatic act, the politician’s daughter, referred in SC records as ‘X’, had left her parents’ home in Gulbarga for Delhi 20 days after being tortured into marrying a man instead of her lover. Within hours of moving the SC while under care of the Delhi Commission for Women, she was given Delhi Police protection.

When the woman, through her counsel Indira Jaising, said she wanted to return to Bengaluru and pursue her masters in engineering, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said, “You are an adult. You can go wherever you want and pursue whatever you wish to.”

But Jaising said the woman feared reprisals from her parents and husband. “Her brother, supported by her mother, had threatened to rape her,” the counsel said and sought protection against any tyrannical action from the parents or in-laws. The bench ordered, “She can go to any place she desires to. Parents or any family member of X, the husband or his family members, cannot create any obstacle in the path of the woman.”

Appearing for the parents, senior advocate Basava Patil told the court that there would be no coercive action against the woman from the parents or other family members and that all her belongings, including educational certificates and documents, would be handed over to her. “She need not apprehend anything. There will be no interference with her life from the parents. All things she desires will be given back to her,” Patil assured. The SC asked the parents to hand over documents to her through advocate-on-record Sunil Fernandes. 



RELIEF GRANTED

Few takers for pricey PG medical NRI seats

Hemali.Chhapia@timesgroup.com

Mumbai: 
 
08.05.2018

Prohibitively expensive NRI quota seats for postgraduate medical courses are not finding many takers across India. Fees being the highest in Maharashtra and Karnataka, just about 3%-5% of such seats have been filled up in the two states.

Data from several states shows that despite setting a flat rate or in some cases, lowering the fee to the same level as for management quota candidates, colleges are finding it difficult to fill their 15% NRI quota. Barring Kerala—where most NRI seats have been snapped up — states have been wooing candidates to join their colleges, sometimes even negotiating tuition rates for NRI seats.

“Most colleges across India, including deemed universities, are finding it difficult to get NRI candidates for their seats,” said head of the Directorate of Medical Education, Dr Praveen Shingare. “So they are looking for Indian candidates who can be sponsored by NRI relatives,” he added.

In most states, private colleges are allowed to follow a three-tier system in which seats are divided into merit, management, and NRI categories. Candidates are charged more for NRI seats in a bid to cross-subsidise education for the meritorious. And until 2016-17, the demand for NRI seats was so high they would be secretly auctioned off in many cases.

Now with the line of claimants thinning, in most states, colleges use their liberty to convert NRI seats to management quota (where fees are less) or surrender them to the agency in charge of regulating admissions, to enrol students at the same rate as merit seats.

In Bihar, not a single NRI seat has seen takers despite the fact that fees are same as those for management quota. Odisha has only one college and it has no NRI quota, merely merit seats and management seats. In Kerala, vacant NRI seats are being converted to merit seats and filled up by the commissioner of entrance exam. And in Karnataka, of 350 NRI seats in PG medical in 2017-18, only130 seats were filled. The rest were later shifted to the management category.

“In Karnataka, the fee structure of PG medical seats has gone up by 15% in 2018-19, compared to the previous year,” said Dr S Sacchidananda, director of Medical Education, government of Karnataka. So, an NRI PG seat in orthopaedics goes for ₹50 lakh, 10 times more compared to the ₹5 lakh charged for a merit seat in private colleges. 

7K med college docs to be redesignated 

After 5-Yr Halt, List Sent For Health Dept Nod

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 08.05.2018

At least 7,000 doctors in state-run medical colleges will be re-designated or promoted as per Medical Council India rules and nomenclature by month-end, director of medical education A Edwin Joe announced on Monday.

The Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association had told health secretary J Radhakrishnan and Dr Joe that associate professors would not pose as professors during MCI inspections for renewal of permission. For five years, associate doctors were misrepresented as professors to renew ‘permission’ for continuing MBBS courses in many colleges despite 50% vacancies in professor posts, they said. More than 500 of the 1,020 professor posts are vacant.

A team of doctors officially handed over the representation to officials and told reporters the fraud won’t recur even if it means state medical colleges losing recognition.

Dr Joe said they had been working on redesignating teaching faculty for nearly a month. “We found that even at entry level there were many variations in designations. While some MBBS doctors were called tutors, some were called demonstrators,” he said. At the senior level associate professors were also called readers.

Promotions were also time bound. After a year, tutors/demonstrators were redesignated junior residents and three years later were made assistant professors if in non-clinical stream or senior residents if in clinical stream. The MCI has now said that doctors with a PG degree can get promotions.

The process for promotions was halted five years ago when anomalies were found in several promotions.

“We have prepared a revised list and sent it to the health department for approval,” he said.

AIADMK gradually losing support within

Mayilvaganan.V@timesgroup.com 08.05.2018

Never in the recent past had the AIADMK been so isolated, and it is more apparent since leaders of various political parties like Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekar Rao are flocking to the Gopalapuram residence of M Karunanidhi and calling upon the DMK working president M K Stalin, while all is quiet on the other side.

The AIADMK, which boasts of being the third largest party in the Lok Sabha, has been virtually left alone with none of the national or state parties willing to have any truck with it. With just a year to go for the parliamentary elections, there is little indication of any party expressing interest to join hands with the beleaguered AIADMK. “The present plight of the AIADMK is because of the leadership crisis. There is a clear anti-BJP mood across the state but the AIADMK is seen as a proxy of BJP. Other parties don’t want to be associated with it,’’ says political analyst M Kasinathan.

It is not that the AIADMK has not gone through such a lull before. After the 1996 debacle, the party turned out to be a virtual untouchable in the political arena, but J Jayalalithaa managed to do a reversal and stitched a grand alliance in two years when she roped in the BJP and other parties for the Lok Sabha elections.

For that matter, even DMK was isolated politically, especially during the Sri Lankan war when it was seen toeing the line of the Congress, though not to the extent of AIADMK’s present situation. “This situation will not change and the likelihood of parties aligning with the AIADMK in future is nil,’’ says journalist and political analyst Tharasu Shayam. “While Jayalalithaa was known to be a friend of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she maintained an identity of her own. But neither EPS nor OPS command such a standing,’’ Shayam said.

The feeling has percolated to the grassroots, leaving the party workers more demoralised than ever. What has irked them is that the dual leadership of EPS and OPS was doing little to reverse the trend.

If the poor enrolment of members is an indication of the low morale of the cadres, yet another indication is the poor patronage of the newly launched party organ Puratchi Thalaivi Namadhu Amma. AIADMK party members admit that the BJP, which appeared to be the saviour, has now become a political obstacle. “Our leaders do not want to make any overtures to other parties for alliance for fear of antagonising the BJP,’’ said a district party member from the western region.

The series of protests — against Tasmac, NEET, Sterlite and on the Cauvery issue — has also battered the image of AIADMK, demoralising the workers’ morale further. “EPS is taking efforts to keep the party and government running. Much of the credit for the split in the Sasikala family should go to him,’’ said a party member. But for AIADMK, there was no gain from the rift between TTV Dhinakaran and V K Dhivaharan.

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Centre issues wrong hall ticket, aspirant lodges complaint

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Salem: 
 
08.05.2018
Father of a NEET aspirant who was turned away from the exam centre on Sunday after her admit card was found to be fake, has lodged a police complaint against an eseva centre for issuing wrong admitcard.

Navaratnaraj,father of Jeevitha,whowas refused permission by CBSE authorities, said in the complaint that the e–seva centre had issued ‘fake’ admit card. Jeevitha from Rasipuram had one hall ticket with an exam centre allotted at Kondalampattiin Salem and another hall ticket of a centre at Kottayam in Kerala.Jeevitha went to the Salem exam centre from where she was sent away. Authorities said the exam centre number given in the hall ticket was not that of Kondlampatti centre.

Navaratnaraj told the police that he had approached the e-seva centre on Anna Salai in Rasipuram and registered for NEET. After the admit card was uploaded on the CBSE website, he visited the centre where an employee of the centre downloaded the card and gavehim.

“It had Kondalampatti as the exam centre. The next day I got a call from the person from the centre stating that they have received another card which had Kottayam as the exam centre. We were confused andhencewentto Salem centre since as it was closer,” he told reporters. He has blamed the esevacentrefor theconfusion.

NEWS DIGEST

Docs urge TN to block dates for UG med counselling  
08.05.2018

Doctors’ associations have asked the directorate of medical education to announce dates for undergraduate medical counselling. Tamil Nadu Government Doctors’ Association president K Senthil said Anna University has declared dates for engineering counselling and delay in medical counselling will only leave students more confused. State officials said that the counselling can’t be scheduled without a schedule from the Directorate General for Health Services releasing dates for all India quota. “Only when the All India quota seats are filled at least in round 1, we can start our counselling. 6Otherwise it will cause more confusion,” said director of medical education Dr A Edwin Joe. The association has also urged the government to rework offer incentives for doctors working in all government hospitals in rural areas.

Blood bank urges students to donate: The blood bank in Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital has urged college students to volunteer and donate blood at the bank. Last year, the bank supplied one lakh blood components in 2017, and 96,000 in 2016 free of cost. The bank also conducted around 360 blood donation camps every year. More than 39,000 people have donated blood voluntarily at the bank or in camps. The collected blood units are separated into blood components using a separator and are stored in a freezer.

Docs urge transparency in transfers: Doctors’ Association for Social Equality (DASE) has urged the government to ensure transparency in counselling for transfers of government doctors. In a statement, Dr G R Ravindranath said complaints had come up, during the ongoing counselling for transfers being held at the Directorate of Medical Services, regarding vacancies not being disclosed to participants in a proper manner. “The government should take steps to disclose all vacant posts to participants at the counselling session,” he added.

Strike threat by transport unions: A group of transport workers’ unions have threatened to go on strike again if the government does not clear their pending dues soon. The Madras high court directed the state to clear dues and increase pay scale of government transport corporation workers after the unions went on strike in January. The government is yet to release funds.

திருமலையில் நாகப்பாம்பு: பக்தர்கள் ஓட்டம்

By திருப்பதி, | Published on : 08th May 2018 12:44 AM

திருமலையில் நாகப்பாம்பைக் கண்ட பக்தர்கள் அலறி அடித்துக் கொண்டு ஓட்டம் பிடித்தனர்.

திருமலையில் கல்யாண மண்டபம் பகுதியில் ஞாயிற்றுக்கிழமை இரவு பக்தர்கள் தங்கள் வாடகை அறைக்கு திரும்பிக் கொண்டிருந்தனர். அப்போது அங்கு சீறிப் படமெடுத்தபடி ஒரு நாகப்பாம்பு சென்று கொண்டிருந்தது. அதை கண்ட பக்தர்கள் அலறி அடித்துக் கொண்டு ஓட்டம் பிடித்தனர்.
இதுகுறித்து தகவல் அறிந்த தேவஸ்தான ஊழியர்கள் பாம்பு பிடிக்கும் ஊழியரான பாஸ்கர் நாயுடுவிற்கு தகவல் அனுப்பினர். ஆனால் அவர் திருமலையில் இல்லை.

எனவே வனத்துறை ஊழியர்கள் கல்யாண மண்டபம் பகுதியில் பக்தர்கள் செல்வதற்கு அனுமதி மறுத்து பாம்பைப் பிடிக்கும் பணியில் ஈடுபட்டனர். சில மணிநேரம் போராடி அந்தப் பாம்பைப் பிடித்து பெரிய பிளாஸ்டிக் கூடையில் போட்டு மூடி அடர்ந்த வனப்பகுதிக்குள் கொண்டு சென்று விட்டனர். அதன்பின் அவ்வழியாக பக்தர்கள் செல்ல அனுமதிக்கப்பட்டனர்.