Engineering colleges run by same trust within 2 kilometre distance can be merged: AICTE

The merger will be permitted if both the colleges are operating within a distance of two kilometres.

Published: 06th January 2019 01:53 AM 

Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairperson of All India Council for Technical Education. (AICTE Website)

By S Mannar Mannan

Express News Service

COIMBATORE: Concerned over the increasing number of engineering seats falling vacant in private colleges, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has now decided to allow merger of engineering colleges run by the same trust or society or company.

The merger will be permitted if both the colleges are operating within a distance of two kilometres. Post-merger, one college can act as the main campus and other can act as an off-campus, if necessary. The built-up area requirement needs to be fulfilled and colleges have to maintain the student-faculty ratio, says the Approval Process Handbook for 2019-20 academic year released by the AICTE on Friday.


However, the AICTE reserves the right to reject the application for merger, if it finds the reasons given are not justified or commercial or business angle is suspected, or to defeat the provisions of any law. This was done in addition to AICTE accepting the recommendation of the committee formed to provide a national perspective plan, which advocated for not allowing creation of any new capacity starting from 2020 academic year.

The committee also suggested that the creation of new capacity can be reviewed every two years. However, applications made in the current year and the past two years may be considered for starting institutions, it said.

42nd edition of Chennai Book Fair inaugurated; to continue till January 20

The 42nd Chennai Book Fair kicked off to a ‘good’ response on Friday with 812 stalls this year, at the Nandanam YMCA grounds.

Published: 05th January 2019 12:32 PM 

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami visits a stall after inaugurating the 42nd Chennai Book Fair at YMCA Grounds, Nandanam on Friday | P Jawahar

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: The 42nd Chennai Book Fair kicked off to a ‘good’ response on Friday with 812 stalls this year, at the Nandanam YMCA grounds. The number of stalls in the fair, which is to go on until January 20, has gone up from 708 last year.

Inaugurating the fair, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said, “It is important that parents cultivate the habit of reading so as to encourage the same in their children. Children learn more from the actions of their parents rather than from their words.”

The fair will have one of its longest runs this year, going on for 17 days. Visitors this year will also be able to book their entry tickets online at www.bapasi.com, according to members of Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI) who are organising the fair.

Industrialist Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti and AIADMK spokesperson Vaigaichelvan were also present at the inaugural ceremony.


On Saturday, a statue of ‘Tamizhannai’ will be inaugurated in the premises by Minister for Tamil Development, K Pandiarajan, according to a statement from BAPASI.

Like every year, facilities to enable persons with disabilities to visit the fair without hassles has been ensured, said an organiser and member of BAPASI.

The stalls, of which 487 are for Tamil books and 294 for English books apart from 13 Multimedia stalls, will be open from 2pm to 9pm on weekdays and from 11 am to 9pm on weekends and public holidays.

“Special arena has been arranged for interaction of authors and readers. Leading authors are expected to participate everyday in these interactive sessions,” according to the statement.

BCU and BU fight over evaluators

STAFF REPORTER

BENGALURU, JANUARY 06, 2019 00:00 IST

After fighting for ownership of assets, including buildings and land, Bengaluru Central University (BCU) and Bangalore University (BU) are up in the arms again — this time over evaluators to mark answer scripts of the odd-semester examinations.

Many evaluators have been asked to report for duty at the evaluation camps of both BU and BCU. “We are confused where to go. Both universities are asking us to come and finish evaluation of their answer scripts and then go to the other university,” a Kannada lecturer said.

While BU is conducting evaluation of 13 lakh answer scripts, BCU is evaluating 2 lakh answer scripts.

On Saturday, BU sent out a press release asking principals to get their lecturers to report for evaluation duty, failing which the affiliation of the college would be cancelled. C. Shivaraju, Registrar (Evaluation) of BU, in the release also added that they would inform the Department of Collegiate Education to withhold the salaries of aided college lecturers if they did not turn up for evaluation duty. Prof. Shivaraju said that out of 3,000 evaluators who were supposed to turn up for duty, only half have reported for work.

HC tells State to probe why officials failed to secure bonds from doctors

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

BENGALURU, JANUARY 06, 2019 00:00 IST

They are to be taken from those who join PG courses under govt. quota

The High Court of Karnataka has directed the State government to conduct an inquiry for penalising or prosecuting culpable officials and persons responsible for not securing the undertaking/obligation bond as per the rules from the candidates who had secured postgraduate degree and diploma seats for medical and dental courses under the government quota.

Also, the court directed the government to conduct a probe against those who were responsible for illegally absolving candidates from the undertaking/obligation bond by accepting paltry amount of Rs. 1 lakh as penalty in lieu of joining the government service for a specified period as per the rules, when the rules prescribe levying of penalty ranging from Rs. 3 lakh to Rs. 50 lakh, depending on the year of signing the bond.

Besides, the court directed the government to either call all the doctors, who had joined PG degree or diploma courses after the Rule 15 of the Karnataka Conduct of Entrance Test for Selection and Admission to Postgraduate Medical and Dental Degree and Diploma Courses Rules came into force in December 2006, to join government service for the specified period, or collect legally prescribed penalty from them.

Justice Krishna S. Dixit issued the directions in his recent judgment on the petitions filed by Swamy Manjunath S.T. and several other physicians who had completed postgraduate degree or diploma courses in 2018 after joining the courses in 2015–16 under government quota seats after signing obligation bonds.

The Rule 15 states that candidates selecting PG degree and diploma seats under the government quota in government or private colleges will have to sign a bond giving an undertaking to serve for three years in government service on completion of the course. The candidates have to pay the prescribed penalty if they failed to join government service.

Notification questioned

The petitioners had questioned the September 28, 2018 notification issued by the Department of Medical Education asking them to attend counselling for deploying them for government service, in the posts of senior resident/tutor/specialist, as per their obligation bonds. The petitioners alleged that the government had not called those doctors who had completed courses in earlier years despite signing bonds; and claimed that the bonds were obtained through “coercion” at the time of admission, besides terming government’s rules as “bonded labour”.

The court, from the data given by the government, found that 5,348 candidates had joined medical and dental PG degree and diploma courses under the government quota between 2008–09 and 2017–18 after the Rule 15 came into force, and only 4,965 of them had submitted the obligation bonds.

“... only a small sum of Rs. 11.89 crore is stated to have been recovered as penalty, when prima facie it ought to have been several hundred crores of rupees ... This is a very serious matter warranting attention of the State government/the Comptroller and Auditor General of India/the Accountant General for the State,” the court observed in the order.

Furore over presence of Governor’s secretary in State Assembly

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI, JANUARY 06, 2019 00:00 IST


‘How can he sit on a par with the Speaker?’


The issue of the Governor’s secretary being seated on a par with the Speaker was raised by the DMK in the Assembly on Saturday.

Speaker P. Dhanapal said he would act appropriately to prevent such incidents in the future.

DMK Deputy Floor Leader Duraimurugan showed a photograph of Governor Banwarilal Purohit’s secretary R. Rajagopal sitting inside the House, on a par with the Speaker.

“The Speaker is all powerful and only the Governor can take his seat during his address to the House. None other than the members of the House can sit inside the House. The officials who accompany the Governor should sit with other officials,” Mr. Duraimurgan said.

Guests were allowed inside during special events, and normally, even the Chief Secretary cannot sit inside the Assembly, he said.

‘Protect decorum’

“I am raising the issue not to blame anyone. The Secretary is also my friend. But we have to ensure that the decorum and the privilege of the House is protected,” he said.

Thanking Mr. Duraimurugan for his speech highlighting the power of the Speaker, Mr. Dhanapal said he would act appropriately to avoid such incidents in the future.

CBI sleuths raid premises of IAS officer and UP govt staff
Illegal Grant Of Mining Leases: Probe Agency Books 11 People

Rohan.Dua@timesgroup.com

Lucknow:06.01.2019

CBI personnel on Saturday swooped down on residences of 2008 batch IAS officer B Chandrakala and several government employees on a directive by Allahabad HC to probe illegal grant of mining leases in UP between 2012 and 2013. The CBI registered its third FIR in the case and booked 11 people for extortion, theft and criminal conspiracy. Five preliminary enquiries have been registered by the investigating agency in the last two years.

Besides the high-profile IAS officer B Chandrakala, then Hamirpur district magistrate, the sitting SP MLC Ramesh Mishra andthe former BSP 2014 Lok Sabha candidate Sanjay Dixit have also been named ccused.

CBI teams across Kanpur, Lucknow, Hamirpur and Noida, rummaged through furniture, almirahs, sofa sets, kitchenware and drawers in Chandrakala’s home at Sapphire Homes and Villas on Fawn Brake Avenue in Lucknow. A separate CBI team carried out simultaneous raids at Mishra’s residence in Kanpur.

Chandrakala, who earned the sobriquet of Lady Singham after her videos of leading anti-corruption crusades went viral during the SP regime, is currently on study leave. She served as DM at Meerut, Bulandshahar and Bijnor apart from Hamirpur, where mining licences were illegally allotted.

The FIR is based on directions of Allahabad high court, which ordered a probe after a civil writ petition was filed in January 2013 during SP regime.

The probe was commissioned after the complaint that several private people, in connivance with government officials, were allegedly allowed to loot minerals after excavation. Illegal mining was taking place at Shamli, Hamirpur, Saharanpur, Deoria, Fatehpur, Siddharth Nagar, CBI officials said.

CBI also sent a separate team to Hamirpur, where alleged licences were sold without following e-tendering procedure and interrogated several businessmen.

During raids in Lucknow and Noida, CBI said it seized cash of over ₹12.5 lakh, property documents and 1.8 kg of gold from a Ram Avtar Singh, who served as a senior clerk in the UP mining department.

A mining excavator and lease holder Adil Khan, has also been named in the FIR along with then mining clerk Ram Ashrey Prajapati, businessmen Dinesh Mishra, Ambika Tiwari and Karan Singh.

Chandrakala had more FB followers than Akhilesh Yadav & Arvind Kejriwal

Lucknow

: The ambitious IAS officer B Chandrakala, 39, embroiled in a sand mining scam in UP, had during her tenure hired an agency for brand-building on social media sites. Custom-made videos were routinely sent to news channels and social media sites to enhance her image as a lady crusader against a corrupt system.

Her success in branding herself online was such that at a point in mid-2017, Chandrakala outnumbered then UP CM Akhilesh Yadav’s numbers of followers, with 85 lakh followers on Facebook, ahead of even Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.

She was believed to be close to then mining minister Gayatri Prajapati, now facing imprisonment. TNN

Court increases compensation to deceased techie’s kin to ₹69 lakh

Sureshkumar.K@timesgroup.com

Chennai:  06.01.2019

Adopting a humane approach and dispensing with formalities, the Madras high court has suo motu increased the compensation awarded for the death of a software engineer from ₹50.85 lakh to ₹69 lakh.

Trashing an insurer’s challenge to the ₹50.85 lakh compensation awarded by a motor accidents claims tribunal, a division bench of Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice Krishnan Ramaswamy said no principle of natural justice would be violated if a beneficial order was passed without notice to the party concerned.

“Only when non-compliance of principles of natural justice causes prejudice or violates the rights of the opposite party, the entire proceedings are vitiated. Whereas, when the opposite party is to be benefited by an order, there is no necessity to issue notice to the said party and the affected party need not be present before this court. What is needed is humane approach,” the bench said.
S Makesh, an engineer and senior lead designer in a private company earning ₹35,375 a month, was killed in an accident on Tiruvallur High Road on October 9, 2010. On September 15, 2017, allowing the claim plea moved by Makesh’s wife Sudha, her children and parents, the Poonamallee Motor Accident Claims Tribunal passed an order granting ₹50.85 lakh. Challenging the order, the company which insured the lorry that caused the accident filed the present appeal in the high court.

Dismissing an appeal at the admission stage, and without notice to the family of the deceased, the bench said: “In this case, though the insurance company filed appeal against the award of ₹50.85, this court suo motu enhanced the compensation to the claimants to ₹69 lakh, without notice to the claimants, while dismissing the insurance appeal at the admission stage.”

The bench noted that benefit could be given, even exparte, in the absence of the opposite party in the proceedings — especially in claims regarding the Motor Vehicles Act — when the proceedings are brought before the court by insurance companies. Similarly, while dismissing the appeal filed by the insurance companies, the court has the power and jurisdiction to enhance the compensation by re-appreciating the evidence on record when the tribunal does not award just compensation to the victims of the road traffic accidents, the bench added.

A division bench trashed an insurer’s challenge to the ₹50.85 lakh compensation awarded by a tribunal, saying no principle of natural justice would be violated if a beneficial order is passed without notice to the party concerned