Curbs imposed on govt. staff for altering date of birth

Dennis S. Jesudasan

CHENNAI, JULY 31, 2018 00:00 IST


Must have completed 15 years when they appeared for SSLC exam

In line with an order of the Madras High Court, the State government has issued specific instructions to appointing authorities in the State to verify whether government employees seeking to alter the date of birth had completed the stipulated age when they appeared for the SSLC examination.

According to a recent Government Order, such government employees should have completed 15 years of age when they appeared for the SSLC exams up to 1977 and 14 years for SSLC exams held from 1978 onwards.

Procedure laid down

Section 59 of the Tamil Nadu Government Servants (Conditions of Service) Act, 2016 and an official communication of June 23, 2004 have so far laid down the procedure to be followed for government employees to alter their date of birth.

In a judgment delivered in July last year in R. Santhoshkumar Vs. State of Tamil Nadu, the Madras High Court directed the Chief Secretary to issue a circular to all government departments to ensure that an employee seeking alteration of date of birth is eligible to take up SSLC exam based on his/her correct date of birth. “If action is taken to cancel appointment of employees seeking alteration of date of birth, in case the employee has not attained the minimum age to take up the qualifying examination from the School, there is a possibility of reduction of cases seeking alteration of date of birth,” the judge had observed.

Banned notes were deposited in TNSTC account

S. Vijay Kumar

CHENNAI, JULY 31, 2018 00:00 IST

DVAC books three employees, including a branch manager

In what could be the tip of the iceberg, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) has booked three employees of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation, including a branch manager, on charges of depositing the demonetised Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes in the corporation’s account.

The allegation is that the suspects collected low denomination notes ranging between Rs. 5 and Rs. 100 from passengers towards the cost of tickets but deposited the high value notes in the TNSTC bank account. Acting on a tip-off, the DVAC launched an investigation.

Investigation revealed that during November 14-18, 2016, the manager of Dindigul branch (TNSTC - Madurai Division) Balusamy deposited Rs. 20,80,000 in Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 denomination notes in Canara Bank.

While bus conductors collected cash ranging between Rs. 5 and Rs. 100 from passengers and deposited Rs. 25,46,520 to the branch manager, he replaced most of the money with the demonetised notes.

The two others named as accused were K. Alagesan, senior grade conductor, and S. Vellaichamy, senior superintendent in the accounts department, who allegedly facilitated the commission of the offence.

The DVAC, in its First Information Report, said that the Ministry of Finance issued a notification on November 8, 2016, declaring that Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 denomination notes would cease to exist as legal tender and certain exemptions for the convenience of the public in certain transactions.

However, the establishments that were authorised to receive the demonetised currency as legal tender were told to maintain complete account of record of such transactions.

The TNSTC was one of the organisations that was given exemption and conductors were authorised to collect demonetised currency from passengers towards the ticket, for a specified period.

False entries

The accused forged vouchers and statements to make false entries in the account book and thereby cheated the State exchequer during the five-day period. Besides invoking the provisions under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, against the accused, the agency booked them on charges of forgery, cheating and criminal breach of trust.

Asked if the DVAC would also probe allegations of similar frauds in other organisations that were authorised to accept demonetised currency as legal tender in the list-demonetisation scenario, an investigator said that the case against the TNSTC staff was based on a specific input given by K. Parasuraman, general secretary, Dindigul Panjaalai Marumalrchi Thozhilalar Munnani.

Three candidates opt for engineering over medicine

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI, JULY 31, 2018 00:00 IST

Career moves:Students at the online counselling by the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission.G. Sribharath 

As a result, 400 students have got an upward movement, says TNEA official

Three candidates, who got medical seats, have surrendered them in favour of engineering in the first round of the online counselling by the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission. The students have chosen the PSG, the MIT and the SSN College of Engineering.

Of the 7,136 candidates who had been tentatively allotted seats, only 6,768 had been provisionally allocated seats.

“We asked 14 students why they had not responded. Nine of them said they had joined agriculture and the rest said they were not interested,” said TNEA selection committee secretary Rhymend Uthariaraj.

“As a result, 400 students got an upward movement.”

Mr. Uthariaraj said 600 candidates in the 200-190 cut-off range had matching scores for medical seats. But by delaying the counselling, the Anna University had managed to save 300 seats from going vacant.

A total of 101 seats under the management category in self-financing medical colleges were allotted on Monday as against 432 seats available in the State. Of the 2,607 candidates who were called, only 422 attended the counselling and 321 were wait listed.

Counselling for CMC

Counselling for the rest of the seats would be done on Tuesday. After 2 p.m., counselling would be held for the management category seats in the Christian Medical College, Vellore. An aspirant under the minority category in the college said the easier part was clearing NEET, which is the qualifier for admission to the CMC from this year. “I have a church sponsorship but the competition is tough. From this year the admission is only through NEET but I am hopeful,” said the student who had scored over 470.

On the reason for choosing the CMC, he said, “Competition is tough in Kerala for government colleges. The minimum cut off there is over 600.” All open category seats in the CMC were filled. In the PSG Medical College, 30 seats had been filled. The fee structure in the CMC is lower than in the other self-financing colleges.

Bank puts up stall

The Indian Bank had put up a stall at the counselling venue. Officials said students could avail themselves of loan of up to Rs. 7.5 lakh without collateral and up to a maximum of Rs. 15 lakh with collateral. The annual fee under the management category in a college could be upward of Rs. 12 lakh, according to officials.

The remaining seats would be filled in the next round to be held by the end of this week, said selection committee secretary G. Selvarajan. “It is not the second round but extension of the first round. We had called candidates with higher marks and knew that seats could fall vacant,” he added.

Denial of H-1B visa pleas of Indians on rise: Report

Washington:

Times of India 31.07.2018

There has been a substantial increase in denial of H-1B visa petitions of Indians by the US immigration authority as compared to people of other nationalities, according to a report by an American non-profit body.

Also, Indian applicants received the most number of ‘request for evidence’ for applications than the people from other countries, said the National Foundation for American Policy report, compiled on the basis of the information received from the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS).

USCIS makes an inquiry called a ‘request for evidence’, or RFE, when they require additional evidence to make a decision on a H-1B case. Failure to comply with an adjudicator’s RFE will result in the denial of an application.

In the fourth quarter of FY 2017, 72% of H-1B cases for Indians received RFEs, compared to 61% for those from others countries. “Data analysed over the years show USCIS adjudicators deny more applications and issue a higher rate of requests for evidence for Indians on both H-1B and L-1 petitions,” the report said.

Also, there was a 42% increase in the proportion of H-1B petitions denied for India-born professionals from the third to the fourth quarter of FY 2017. In the third quarter, 16.6% of the completed H-1B cases for Indians were denied compared to 23.6% in the fourth quarter.

Similarly, there was a 40% increase in the proportion of H-1B petitions that USCIS adjudicators denied for professionals from countries other than India from the third to fourth quarter, rising from a denial rate of 14% in the third quarter to 19.6% in the fourth quarter.

The report said that H-1B denials and requests for evidence increased significantly in the fourth quarter of FY 2017, likely due to new Trump administration policies. As a percentage of completed cases, the request for evidence rate was approximately 69% in the fourth quarter compared to 23% in the third quarter of FY 2017, the report said.

The proportion of H-1B petitions denied for foreignborn professionals increased by 41% increase from the third to the fourth quarter of FY 2017, rising from a denial rate of 15.9% in the third quarter to 22.4% in the fourth quarter, it said.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. An L-1 visa is a visa document used to enter the US for the purpose of work. It is a non-immigrant visa and is valid for a relatively shorter period of time — from three months to five years. PTI


TRUMP POLICY TO BLAME?

Phone exchange case: Maran bros to face trial

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: 31.07.2018

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the plea of former Union telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran for quashing of trial against him in the decade-old BSNL telephone exchange case and asked him to face proceedings in the lower court along with other accused, including his elder brother Kalanithi Maran.

A bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi refused to entertain Maran’s plea challenging the Madras high court order which set aside the special CBI court’s order to discharge the Maran brothers and five others in the case.

“Nothing. Go and face the trial. These are the matters which should be decided in trial,” the bench told Maran’s lawyers who pleaded the court to hear the case on merit.

In a setback to the Maran brothers, the Madras high court had on July 25 remitted back the case to the special CBI court and directed it to continue the trial and complete framing of charges within 12 weeks.

On March 14, the special judge said he was discharging all seven accused since there was no prima facie evidence to prove the charges against them.

According to the CBI, Dayanidhi Maran — during June 2004 to December 2006 when he was Union minister for communication and information technology — misused his official position and installed a private telephone exchange at his residences in Chennai and used it for business transactions involving Sun Network, owned by brother Kalanithi.

“It is not one phone connection used by SUN TV. The case of the prosecution is that in violation of the rules, regulations and guidelines... several phone connections and add-on benefits were given to A-3 ( Dayanidhi Maran) and A-7’s (Kalanithi Maran’s) business establishment illegally,” the HC had said.



FRESH TROUBLE:Dayanidhi (L) and Kalanithi Maran

NEET toppers opt for CMC as mgmt quota counselling begins

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai  31.05.2018

: After a long wait, a dozen students from the top 50 NEET rank-holders in the state picked seats in Christian Medical College, Vellore.

This is the first time the century-old college is admitting students through the single window counselling conducted by the state selection committee. As per the seat matrix released by the state government, 12 of the 100 seats in the college will be reserved for open category students, three for SC/ST students, one for MCI and 84 seats for the network of churches that run hospitals in rural areas.

On Monday, counselling for admission to MBBS management seats in self-financing colleges began with admission to students to IRT, Perundurai. The first student to pick CMC was Raj Chendur Abhishek with a NEET score of 656. The last student to get admission in CMC under open category was Nanditha Vinodh S, who had a NEET score of 595.

The selection committee called for 2,607 candidates, but only 422 of them attended. Of these,101students were allotted seats and 321 others were waitlisted. The seat matrix released by the committee showed11colleges with 247 seats under the linguistic minority category and 155 seats in the open category. However, some colleges such as Trichy SRM Medical College which has listed 53 seats in the minority category moved nearly 40 seats to the open category and Sree Mookambika Institute of Medical Sciences in Kanyakumari pushed five seats to open category.

Meanwhile, the New Delhi-based (Directorate General of Health Services) DGHS, which does counselling for the15% All India Quota (AIQ) seats has kept the second round of counselling in abeyance following court cases.

“The second round of counselling to government colleges will begin as soon as the DGHS returns vacant seats in our 22 government colleges,” said selection committee secretary G Selvarajan.

DVAC books first demonetisation case, TNSTC staff found to have exchanged small change worth Rs 25 lakh to Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes

TNN | Jul 31, 2018, 12.48 AM ISTChennai: 

The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) on Friday registered its first case pertaining to demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in November 2016. A senior grade conductor an accounts superintendent and a branch manager of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC)’s Dindigul branch have been booked for a scam where Rs 25 lakhs collected in lower denominations was changed into Rs 500 and Rs 1000 by the employees during the period.

Ministry of Finance had issued a notification on November 8 that bank notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 would not be legal tender from the next day. Certain establishments handling cash were directed to maintain complete record of stock and sale transactions made with specified bank notes between November 9-11, 2016.

TNSTC had directed that all conductors should make an invoice about the receipt of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes till November 11 and get it signed by branch managers.

An enquiry revealed that conductors collected only lower denomination currencies like Rs 5,10, 20, 50 and Rs 100 for cost of tickets and handed over the sum to Alakesan, the senior grade conductor and cashier. He was given a sum of Rs 25.46 lakh in these denominations.

DVAC said he violated the directives and changed it into Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, depositing it in the bank, stating as if it were collected from passengers. Senior superintendent Vellaichamy and branch manager Balusamy also connived with him, DVAC said. Vouchers and other records were forged, DVAC said. The trio have been booked under corruption, forgery and cheating sections