ID cards: Stick to SC fiat on Aadhaar, citizens tell MTC

DECCAN CHRONICLE.

Published Dec 2, 2018, 1:51 am IST

Senior citizens have demanded that MTC officials do not ask for copy of Aadhaar. 


MTC should make do with a copy of ration card alone, from this time onwards. Officials should instruct all depots in this regard accordingly, they added.

Chennai: As free travel coupons for senior citizens for the period January, February and March 2019, comes up for renewal sometime during the middle of this month, senior citizens have demanded that MTC officials do not ask for copy of Aadhaar.

In line with the apex court verdict on use of Aadhaar, which stated that banks, telecom units and private entities, should not demand Aadhaar number of customers, the MTC also should strictly comply with the order, and refrain from asking for Aadhaar numbers, the citizens noted.

MTC should make do with a copy of ration card alone, from this time onwards. Officials should instruct all depots in this regard accordingly, they added.

President of T. Nagar Welfare Association, Jayaram Sivaram, said, "MTC issues identity cards affixing the photograph of the beneficiary every year. Details of the coupons are also properly recorded to ensure travel only by the beneficiary to whom the coupons are issued."

"Such IDs will become invalid by December 2018 and has to be re-issued. In December 2017, while issuing the new cards for 2018, MTC had asked senior citizens to surrender their old identity cards. When questioned, the counter staff said that old ID cards were asked to be surrendered as per orders from top officials," the civic activist said, adding that one does not understand the logic behind such an order.

Retention of the old ID of a beneficiary by the MTC defies all logic, and the corporation should therefore, instruct all depots not to retain the old IDs, said another citizen. A senior MTC official said that the MTC has instructed all branch managers not to ask for Aadhaar when applying for coupons. "Action would be taken against officials who ask for unnecessary documents and we will look into the issue of retention of the old IDs," the official added.

Offer college seat to child prodigy: Madras High Court 

DECCAN CHRONICLE. | J STALIN

Published Dec 2, 2018, 2:11 am IST

16-year-old had recited 1,330 Tirukkural couplets in LKG. 


Madras High Court

Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the Directorate of Indian Medicine and Homeopathy to permit a 16-year-old meritorious girl student, who recited all 1,330 Tirukkural couplets while studying in LKG itself, to take part in the counselling for the B.A.M.S course and, if she is found eligible in the counselling, admit her in Maria Ayurveda Medical College in Kanyakumari district.

Justice T.Raja gave the directive while disposing of a petition from the girl student Yazhesy Tha, who was not considered for selection on the ground that she has not completed 17 years as on December 31, 2018, as per clause 45 of the prospectus issued by the Director, Indian Medicine and Homeopathy Department.

According to Yazhesy Tha, after passing plus-2, she applied for BSMS/ BAMS/ BNYS/BUMS/BHMS courses for the year 2018-19. Though she has scored 157.25 cut off marks and her rank falls in between 1648 and 1666, she was not considered for selection on the ground that she has not completed 17 years as on December 31, 2018, as per clause 3 of the prospectus, she added.

The judge said it was an admitted fact that the petitioner is a meritorious student who evidently proved her memory and intelligentsia as she started reciting all 1,330 Tirukkural couplets, even from LKG itself and she was awarded a certificate by Deiveeka Sidhantha Ilakiya Mandram on August 2, 2006. She was also conferred title “Tirukkural Maamani by Thalainagar Tamizhasangam on July 24, 2011.

Further, the World Tamil Research Centre, Thramani also awarded certificate on the 66th birth anniversary of former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, certifying that she had participated in Tirukkural recitation competition while studying 8th standard.

Besides several other awards conferred on her clearly show that the petitioner is a highly talented student and also a child prodigy. The difficulty faced by her at the hands of the authorities shows that as she has applied for the said courses and she also secured 157.25 marks, for the simple reason that she is below 17 years as on December 31, 2018, the authorities have denied permission, the judge added.

Pointing out the eligibility criteria as per the amended notification, the judge said when the petitioner has admittedly complied with the admission qualifications, as per the amended notification dated November 7, 2016, the authorities cannot rely upon the old notification dated October 13, 2006 issued for Siddha by citing the age factor that she has not completed 17 years of age as on December 31. This court finds no impediment on the basis of the latest amended notification to allow the petitioner to take part in the counseling. Additional advocate general A.Kumar submitted that on the basis of her cut off marks, she may not be able to get admission in government colleges for Siddha but she can be considered for admission in private colleges and since counseling was presently going on and there was vacancy in Maria Ayurveda Medical College, she will be considered in the said college, the judge added and gave the directive.

Microsoft gives 25 offers to IIT-M students on day 1 

DECCAN CHRONICLE.

Published Dec 2, 2018, 3:07 am IST


Apple and Goldman Sachs are other major recruiters with eight and seven offers respectively on the first session. 


IIT Madras

Chennai: Software giant Microsoft has offered as many as 25 offers to students from IIT Madras on day 1 of the placement season.

Apple and Goldman Sachs are other major recruiters with eight and seven offers respectively on the first session.

The placement season at IITs began on Saturday. During the first session, 19 top companies including Apple and Google gave 85 offers including 6 international offers to the students from top engineering institute in the country.

The top three global consulting majors McKinsey, The Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Co. have participated in the first session and accounted for 13 offers.

Isro and ONGC have already recruited 7 candidates from IIT Madras taking the total offers to 92 in the first session which was held from 7 am to 2 pm on Saturday.

Professor Manu Santhanam, advisor, Training and Placement, IIT Madras said that finance and analytics sector also gave a high number of offers on the first session with 29 offers received from these companies.

More than 1,300 students are registered for placement this year from IIT Madras and over 326 companies have expressed interest to recruit the students.

Alekhya Reddy from Computer Science and Engineering Department got selected for Redmond campus of Microsoft in the US. She expressed a sense of satisfaction after attending interviews of software giants and answering nerve-wracking coding questions.

Health cover from Tamil Nadu government raised from Rs 2 Lakh to Rs 5 Lakh

The new insurance cover will come into effect from December 1, he said in an official release.
 
Published: 01st December 2018 01:27 AM |

 
Image for representational purpose only.

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government has hiked the health insurance cover, under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CMCHIS), from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced on Friday.

The new insurance cover will come into effect from December 1, he said in an official release.

Under the CMCHIS, 1.58 crore families are covered for 1,027 procedures for Rs 1 lakh per annum and for 154 procedures for up to Rs 2 lakh per annum, P Uma Maheswari, Project Director, Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project, explained.

However, under the Pradhan Mandri Jan Arogya Yojana Scheme, which the TN scheme is linked from September, beneficiaries selected based on level of deprivation in rural regions and on occupation in urban regions get a cover of up to Rs 5 lakh per annum.


“People who don’t fall into those categories are not eligible for the central scheme,” she said.

“The State decided to raise the cover under CMCHIS to Rs 5 lakh to ensure that all benefit equally, regardless of whether they are covered under the central health insurance scheme or not,” she added.

Families covered under the scheme can utilise it without paying any fee, the CM said.

I-T dept asked to keep mum on noon meal scheme probe

Justice T Raja granted the injunction while passing interim orders on a petition from Christy Friedgram industry, by its proprietor T S Kumaraswamy in Andypalayam in Namakkal district on Tuesday.

  Published: 30th November 2018 02:16 AM 

 
Madras High Court (File photo | EPS)
By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Income-Tax officials at various levels, including its Director-General at Nungambakkam, have been restrained by the Madras High Court from divulging anything to the print and visual media on the ongoing investigation into the allegations against a private firm in Namakkal district, which supplied food materials for the State government’s noon meal scheme.

Justice T Raja granted the injunction while passing interim orders on a petition from Christy Friedgram industry, by its proprietor T S Kumaraswamy in Andypalayam in Namakkal district on Tuesday.

“In the light of the observations of the Supreme Court, as well as Rule 11 of the Central Civil Service (Conduct) Rules, since the IT department cannot directly or indirectly communicate and provide any information on the pending inquiry of any government servant or any person, more particularly any sub judice matters, the respondents (IT officials) are directed not to divulge any information or undertake media trial with regard to the investigation of the inquiry being conducted against the petitioner company till further orders,” the judge said and posted the main petition for further hearing after three weeks. Petitioner alleged that IT officials had purposely leaked out incorrect information with regard to his company’s dealings with the government.

Tamil Nadu government offices in villages to have free WiFi in a year

The wifi will be protected by an emergency response team that will prevent hackers from stealing data, said Santhosh Babu, State Information Technology Secretary.
 
Published: 01st December 2018 05:44 AM 

 
For representational purposes (File | PTI)

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: All government establishments in villages will be enabled with free Wi-Fi within a year with around 50,000 km of cable being laid across the State. The wifi will be protected by an emergency response team that will prevent hackers from stealing data, said Santhosh Babu, State Information Technology Secretary, on Friday.

Speaking at the International Computer Security Day conference, he said “While our nation has a Computer Emergency Response Team India (CERT-In), a national nodal agency to resolve computer security problems, we are striving to build a Computer Emergency Response Team- Tamil Nadu( CERT-TN). At a cost of Rs 29.39 crore, we are also creating a Cyber Security Architecture, that will detect unwanted intrusion and stop stealing of information, he said.

Warning about information being sold he said, “Information is a commodity that is bought and sold in the grey market. Most of us do not understand the seriousness of our identity being stolen. Citizens should be aware about cyber crimes and should take necessary steps to secure the data at our level.”

Any information shared on the internet reaches the servers in the United States of America before it reaches us, he said. With the upcoming Cyber Security Architecture, any information that is shared will be scanned and prevented, if the content is of high value, before it reaches the open space in the server.


“Cable wires will be laid over 50,000 km of landscape across Tamil Nadu to provide high speed internet connectivity through free wifi at village level. The wi fi will be provided at all government establishments like hospitals and police stations,” he said.

He also said the office of the Director-General of Police here is being transformed into a ‘paperless e-office’ towards which many officers are striving.

Applauding the work of the State cyber crime police officers, Santhosh Babu said the officers are managing to resolve any intrusion in CCTNS website which is vulnerable and anyone can place an FIR inside.

He said it is a must to warn people about the bitcoin transactions and any other usage that goes through the dark web. “Security on the cyberspace is not a necessity, it’s a national security issue,” he said.

City police commissioner A K Viswanathan said about 10,254 complaints were lodged in the cyber crime cell in the last five years and 399 cases were solved.

Tamil Nadu officials asked to produce list of teachers transferred in 2018

While teachers working away from their home district for more than 10 years were not given transfer to their districts, transfer orders were issued to juniors within a few months of their joining.

Published: 01st December 2018 01:41 AM 

 
Madras High Court. (File Photo | Express Photo Service)

By Express News Service

MADURAI: Admitting a PIL seeking inquiry into corruption in the transfer counselling conducted for teachers, the Madurai Bench directed the Secretary and Director of School Education Department to produce the list of teachers transferred this year and mention the reasons.

KK Ramesh of Madurai submitted in his litigation that the authorities issued transfer orders to a lot of teachers, citing administrative grounds by collecting bribe from them during the general transfer counselling in 2018.

While teachers working away from their home district for more than 10 years were not given transfer to their districts, transfer orders were issued to juniors within a few months of their joining, stated the litigant, questioning the transparency of the method.

These practices result in an imbalance in vacancies. This is evident from the statement made by the government during the counselling that teachers should not be transferred from southern to northern districts, Ramesh stated and prayed the Court to direct an inquiry into such irregularities.


Hearing the plea, a bench comprising K K Sasidharan and P D Audikesavalu issued a notice to the department with specific directions to its Secretary and Director to submit a report on the list of teachers transferred during this year’s counselling.

The report should contain relevant details with regard to the earlier period of service of the teachers and reason for their transfer, the judges added and adjourned the case to December 11.