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Jewellery goes missing at TTD temple

Tirupati:03.02.2019

In an embarrassment to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, precious jewellery, including three crowns worn by processional deities at the Govindaraja Swamy temple, managed by TTD, have gone missing.

TTD top brass, including Tirupati joint executive officer Pola Bhaskar and chief vigilance and security officer Gopinath Jatti, IPS, rushed to the Govindaraja Swamy temple after the jewellery missing episode was brought to their notice on Saturday.

According to sources in the vigilance and security, CCTV footage of the temple was being examined by senior officials to find out how the jewels went missing which is abuzz with pilgrims and security.

Senior officials as well as the vigilance wing questioned priests and paricharakas. The value of the missing crowns is yet to be made public. TNN

Railway clerk put off duty for helming train with 700 on board

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Surat:03.02.2019
The railway booking clerk facing inquiry after his video of him driving a passenger train on Tapti line from Surat to Jalgaon went viral has been taken off duty by Western Railway (WR) authorities on Saturday.

Official sources said the railway authorities have taken cognizance of booking clerk Ravindra More, 38, employed at Athwalines passenger reservation centre (PRS), driving the passenger train with more than 700 passengers onboard.

While the inquiry is still going on, the clerk has been taken off duty.

The video of Ravindra More had gone viral on social media, showing him operating the locomotive engine of the passenger train for about 10km at a speed of 60km per hour.

More was taking directions from the loco pilot on increasing speed and applying brake. However, the identity of the loco pilot, who allowed More to drive the passenger train is yet to be established.

In the preliminary inquiry, More stated that the video was around seven years old and that he does not remember the train which he drove.

As per Indian Railways rules, even an assistant loco pilot is not allowed to take control of the loco engine in the absence of the authorized loco pilot.

Area railway manager (ARM), Surat railway station, CR Garuda said, “The clerk in question has been put off duty by higher authorities. He will have to report to work on a daily basis, but will not be able to perform his duty. The inquiry is still going on against him. If the WR finds substantial evidence against the clerk, he may face severe action.”

A senior officer of WR said, “The inquiry is on to find the identity of the loco pilot, who allowed the booking clerk to drive the passenger train. As per loco running staff rules, the loco pilot is not allowed to hand over the system to an outsider. In this case, both the clerk and the loco pilot are equally responsible for putting passenger safety at risk.”

Degrees must have photos of students: Javadekar

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Pune:03.02.2019

The HRD ministry has directed all universities to issue degree certificates with photographs of students, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar announced on Saturday.

Speaking at the 20th convocation ceremony of Bharati Vidyapeeth, Javadekar said this was being done to avoid any misuse of degrees. He also spoke about a National Academic Depository and said universities can upload students’ documents on it free of charge till September. He, however, did not give any time frame for implementation of the directive.

“Students tend to lose their important documents, and when they go abroad they want authenticated certificates. Hence, we have started electronic depository called National Academic Depository. Degree certificates and marks lists will be on this depository. The institutes can upload their 10 years’ data free of cost till September,” added Javadekar.

Taking a jibe at Bharati Vidyapeeth University, which still continues with the tradition of convocation gowns, Javadekar said, “I had written a letter to all universities requesting them to switch to Indian dress, designed by their own students, for convocation. I hope Bharati Vidyapeeth, too, will follow this directive from next year.”

Speaking at the 20th convocation ceremony of Bharati Vidyapeeth, Javadekar said this was being done to avoid any misuse of degree

Student visa racket spat gets ugly, Delhi issues ‘demarche’ to US govt

Nodal Officer Appointed To Supervise Assistance To Victims, Families

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Washington:03.02.2019

India and the United States stumbled into the most serious spat since the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York in 2013, with New Delhi making known its displeasure over the incarceration of scores of Indians who were ostensibly entrapped by US authorities in a sting operation aimed at uncovering an employment and immigration racket.

From issuing a demarche – a note of protest – to the US government via its embassy in New Delhi to establishing a hotline for the alleged victims in Washington and offering legal counsel, the Indian government initiated a series of measures on Saturday that left no doubt that it felt the purported students have been victimized. The Indian Embassy in Washington DC also appointed a nodal officer to supervise assistance to the victims and their families.

“Embassy of India, Washington and all five Consulates in the US [are] working closely together to help Indian students detained in the US,” the embassy said. More than 100 victims are under arrest – some in home detention and others at immigration processing centers – all over the US and the embassy is still trying to get a complete picture. New Delhi is also insisting that the students, who it says may have been sucked into the scam inadvertently, should be treated differently from the eight recruiters, who are also Indian.

But the US side is questioning the very description of the alleged victims as students, and maintains that they were fully aware that they were enrolling in a fictional university that had no proper campus or classes, and they were using it as a route to work authorization with intent to immigrate.

“Homeland Security Investigations special agents uncovered a nationwide network that grossly exploited US immigration laws. These suspects aided hundreds of foreign nationals to remain in the United States illegally by helping to portray them as students, which they most certainly were not. HSI remains vigilant to ensure the integrity of US immigration laws and will continue to investigate this and other transnational crimes,” Special Agent in Charge Steve Francis, who investigated the case, said.

Aside from the human aspects of the imbroglio, the situation is complicated by politics and hypernationalism on both sides with plenty of grandstanding and posturing.

The Indian side sees no wrong on part of the purported students, who are mostly from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, in an election season where politicians from the two southern states have already jumped on the issue to pressure New Delhi to act on behalf of the victims. On the US side too, the Trump administration is keen to show that it is tough on immigration, even if it means establishing a fake university to entrap students, a tactic see as dodgy by some critics.

On Saturday, officials from the Indian consulate in Houston visited the Prairieland Detention Centre in Alvarado, Texas and the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Texas to meet the incarcerated students and get their version of the episode. Many other students have been subjected to home detention with tracking devices, even as hundreds, perhaps thousands, of students are panicked over the crackdown.

MEA wants students to be treated differently from those who have duped them

Convicted minors cannot be denied govt jobs, says Raj HC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Jaipur:03.02.2019

A minor convicted under the Juvenile Justice Act cannot be debarred from a government job on becoming an adult, stated the Rajasthan high court while imposing a fine of ₹25,000 on the home department for denying the petitioner a government job on the same basis.

The petitioner, Rakesh Kumar, claimed he was selected for the post of a constable with the 12 Battalion RAC recruitment in 2018, but was denied appointment because he had been convicted of theft in 2017 and had been fined ₹1,000.

Rakesh’s counsel pointed out that the home department’s decision was in violation of section 24 of the JJ Act, which states: “a child who has committed an offence and has been dealt with under the provisions of this Act shall not suffer disqualification, if any attached to a conviction of an offence under such law.” Quashing the order of disqualification, the HC directed the respondents to appoint Rakesh as a constable driver in the 12 Battalion RAC in Delhi as per merit and add him to final select list within four weeks.

The court also fined the home department ₹25,000 — to be paid to the Rajasthan legal services authority — for “mechanically acting contrary to both section 24 of the Act of 2015 and Rule 13 of 1989 entailing harassment and anxiety to the petitioner and also nonchalantly adding to the overcrowded docket of this court.”

The petitioner claimed he was selected for the post of constable with the 12 Battalion RAC recruitment in 2018, but was denied appointment because he had been convicted

MANONMANIAM SUNDARANAR UNIV

HC junks pleas on VC appointment

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:03.02.2019

In a reprieve to the vice-chancellor of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University in Tirunelveli, K Krishnan Baskar, the Madras high court has dismissed pleas questioning his authority to hold the office.

“Since Baskar was having the required, in fact more-than-required qualification to hold the post of vicechancellor, and there is no evidence to suggest that the search committee has not acted properly in recommending his name, this court has no hesitation to hold that the petitioners have not made out any case to issue notice questioning Baskar, as to under what authority he was holding the post,” Justice R Suresh Kumar said.

The issue pertains to two pleas moved by T Manohara Justus, a senate member of the university, and A Srinivasan, retired professor of Madurai Kamarajar University, questioning the authority of Baskar in holding the post.

According to Justus, on September 18, 2015, the search committee called for applications. Justus claimed that Baskar did not submit any application. “The committee short-listed more than 10 candidates. On the last sitting, the convenor of the committee brought an application from Baskar, which was claimed to be recommended by the then chief secretary”. Due to compelling reasons, Baskar’s name was included in the panel of three candidates, he said.

TN education dept issues notices to 366 unrecognised schools

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai  03.02.2019

: The department of school education has issued notices to 366 private educational institutions across Tamil Nadu for not obtaining the mandated certificate of recognition from the state authorities. The department has also imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh on schools for violating provisions of Right to Education Act.

“We have given them two months time to apply for the certificate of recognition and are taking steps to ensure that they do not continue their classes without the certificate in the coming academic year,” said a senior from the department.

All schools which have been served with the notice are affiliated to ICSE and CBSE boards. According to the department, the maximum number of schools that were identified were from Thiruvallur and Salem districts, which had 33 schools each, while 30 schools in Coimbatore, Kancheepuram and Tiruppur were found to have violated the Act. In Chennai, no private school was found to be functioning without obtaining the recognition.

Section 18 of the RTE act states that no school other than those established, owned or controlled by the appropriate government and local authorities must function without obtaining a certificate of recognition from the competent state authority. Recognition will be granted to schools, which fulfils all norms and standards specified under the RTE act.

On violation, any person running the schools without getting certificate of recognition or continuing after withdrawal of recognition is liable to a fine of ₹1lakh.

The department has also imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh on schools for violating provisions of RTE act