Eligibility cut-off for engineering admission raised

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI, MARCH 21, 2019 00:00 IST

The Higher Education department has issued an order raising the eligibility criteria for admission to undergraduate engineering programmes in Anna University and its affiliated colleges.

The department has said that for the open category, students should have scored a minimum of 45% and for reserved category (BC, MBC, ST, SC) it has been fixed as 40%. This will come into effect from the next academic year. The G.O. has traced the long legal battle and counters presented by the All India Council for Technical Education since academic year 2010-2011. At that time, the government had fixed the eligibility at 50% average in the related subjects for open category; 45% for BC/BCM category; 40% for MBC/DNC candidates; and 35% for students in SCA/SC/ST category.

In the current G.O. dated February 26, Higher Education Secretary Mangat Ram Sharma has said: “The government, after careful examination, decided to accept the recommendation of Technical Education department and fix the minimum eligibility marks to admit students in the first year B.E./B.Tech degree courses from 2019-20 in all engineering colleges in the State on a par with AICTE norms.”

At present, the State government admits students with 35% marks and more in all the reserved category and candidates with 40% and above marks in the open category.

High Court slams Maran brothers

Mohamed Imranullah S.

CHENNAI, MARCH 21, 2019 00:00 IST

The case of the prosecution was that the former Minister had abused and misused his office when he was holding the post between 2004 and 2007

Warns of remand over dilatory tactics

The Madras High Court on Wednesday said it would be open to a special court for CBI cases in Chennai to remand to judicial custody former Union Telecommunications Minister Dayanidhi Maran and his elder brother Kalanithi Maran of Sun TV Network if they adopt any more dilatory tactics in the illegal BSNL telephone exchange case.

Justice N. Anand Venkatesh of the High Court also criticised the Maran brothers, as well as three other co-accused, for having initiated several rounds of litigations before the High Court as well as the Supreme Court in order to ensure that the proceedings before the special court do not cross the beginning stage of framing of charges.

“This court cannot interfere with the proceedings of the trial court at each and every step,” the judge said and directed the special court to complete the trial within four months.

“In a case where the prosecution has levelled allegations bringing out all ingredients of the charges levelled and have placed material before the court,prima facie evidencing the truthfulness of the allegations levelled, trial must be held,” the judge remarked.

Prosecution’s case

The case of the prosecution was that the former Minister had abused and misused his office when he was holding the post between 2004 and 2007, in connivance with six other accused and caused a loss of Rs. 1.78 crore to the public exchequer by installing a private telephone exchange at his Boat Club and Gopalapuram residences in Chennai.

It was alleged that more than 700 high-end telecommunication lines of BSNL were installed in the residences and they were used for business transactions of Sun TV Network.

Observing that “the entire attempt of the petitioners seems to be to again conduct the case as if this court is considering their case for discharge,” Justice Venkatesh dismissed the present petitions as devoid of merits.

Jet pilots look to board SpiceJet as crisis deepens

Press Trust of India

MUMBAI, MARCH 21, 2019 00:00 IST

The harried pilots of Jet Airways, which is on the brink of shuttering operations, have now approached SpiceJet seeking employment.

Jet Airways pilots had earlier been wooed by IndiGo with compensation for their pending salaries and other benefits, leading to murmurs of protests from its own pilots. The airline has been facing acute shortage of cockpit crew, leading to cancellation of hundreds of its flights last month. The Gurugram-based SpiceJet, which has all its 12 Boeing Max planes grounded following the crash of an Ethiopian Airline plane early this month, is looking to hire pilots for its expansion plans.

LONDON BANK’S CLERK CALLED THE POLICE

Nirav got rude shock as he had already fixed ‘appointment for arrest’

Naomi Canton

London:  Times of India 21.03.2019

Wanted diamantaire Nirav Modi knew an arrest warrant has been issued for him and had hoped to be arrested in a less dramatic manner. He had an appointment on Monday, March 25, at a central London police station at 9am. The date and time had been arranged through his lawyer Anand Doobay of Boutique Law, who happens to be the same solicitor another fugitive from the Indian law, Vijay Mallya, uses.

This was how Mallya had done it. On April 18, 2017, at 8.30am, the former liquor baron had appeared at a central London police station by appointment. He had known about it in advance. There were no handcuffs. He was fully cooperative and was simply driven to Westminster magistrates’ court in a police car.

But Nirav Modi’s arrest did not go as he had planned. Instead, uniformed police swooped down on him inside a London bank on Tuesday.

George Hepburne Scott, the barrister representing Modi at Westminster magistrates’ court on Wednesday, said on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 19, the 48-year-old had gone to Metro Bank in Holborn to open a bank account with a revoked Indian passport and his council tax bill as his ID. When he got there, the bank clerk, aware of the publicity surrounding his case, called the cops. Uniformed police turned up and

his passport, which was revoked by the Indian government, was seized and he was arrested and taken to police cells. He spent the night in a cell before being produced at the Westminster magistrates’ court at midday local time

(5.30pm IST) on Wednesday.

Scott explained, “On March 12 the extradition squad contacted Doobay, and Doobay requested an arrest appointment. The extradition squad called back on March 13 and the date of the arrest by appointment was fixed for March 25, 2019. My understanding is the extradition squad had fixed this up with both the CPS (crown prosecution service) and the court.”

In several ‘sick’ hospitals, doctors are first casualty

Of 23 Pvt Medical Colleges In Kerala, Only 5 Pay Docs On Time

Preetu.Nair@timesgroup.com

Kochi:21.03.2019

Wedged between corporate hospitals with deep pockets and a vastly improved public healthcare system, mid-level private hospitals across Kerala are either not paying their doctors on time or forcing them to accept drastic pay cuts. In some hospitals, they are even retrenching doctors. The most affected are 50 to 100-bed hospitals. Private medical colleges too are in this unenviable position — of the 23 private medical colleges, only about five are at present paying their doctors on time.

“It is true that many hospitals are unable to pay their doctors on time. Even senior specialist doctors are affected”, Indian Medical Association (IMA) state secretary Dr N Sulphi said. According to IMA Kerala estimates, of the 800-odd 50 plus-bedded healthcare institutions in the state, around 100 hospitals spread across all districts, are facing severe financial crisis and unable to pay their doctors’ salaries.

Ironically, Kerala’s remarkably high doctor-to-population ratio — WHO prescribes a doctor-population ratio of 1:1000, while in Kerala the ratio is 1:300 — could be at the root of the problem. There are around 70,000 doctors registered with Travancore Cochin Medical Council (TCMC) in Kerala, of around 55,000 are practising in Kerala. Of the 55,000, almost 50% are specialist doctors and get on an average ₹1.25 lakh to ₹1.5 lakh salary per month. There are around 1,200 super-specialist doctors registered in the state and on an average, they get anything between ₹2.5 lakh and ₹3 lakh per month. In a good hospital that has been in existence for more than 4 to 5 years, the doctor’s salary constitutes 20% of the total cost.

“Unlike in the past, when hospitals were after doctors, now the whole thing has reversed. Some are even forced to take a salary cut while taking a new job,” Dr Sulphi said. With almost 60% to 70% doctors working as consultants, they don’t even have proper leave facility. They are paid for the service they give and there are no social security measures in place. With more doctors losing jobs, IMA has intervened in the matter and asked hospitals to at least honour contracts.

“We spend crores of rupees to set up speciality units but often doctors are unable to live up to the expectation and we don’t even get enough money to repay loans. Then we are left with only two options, either reduce doctor’s salary or close down the unit,” said Kerala Private Hospitals Association (KPHA president Dr P K Mohamed Rasheed.

“The minimum wage rollout has created economic stress for everybody in the system. To pay salaries, the hospitals were forced to raise their tariff and patients who couldn’t afford to pay have shifted to other hospitals resulting in lack of volume for these hospitals,” said Dr Harish Pillai, president, AHPI – Kerala Chapter Association of Healthcare Providers (India).

Health experts said that the healthcare scenario in Kerala is undergoing major changes now and the private hospitals that came up when government healthcare system had stagnated is now struggling to survive with increased competition from corporate hospitals and now improved facilities in the government sector.

Kerala State Planning Board member Dr B Eqbal said, “With facilities in the government hospitals improving, people are opting to go to the government hospital for treatment and definitely this has reduced the rush of patients to private hospitals. From just 25 % patients availing healthcare services at government hospitals in the past, now it is jumped to 40 %. Our target is to reach 60 % of the population. If this happens, the private hospitals will further be affected”.

More foreigners coming to study at TNAU

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Coimbatore:21.03.2019

In a bid to improve its global ranking, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University is aggressively trying to collaborate with more foreign institutions on research and student exchange programmes. The number of foreign students visiting the varsity has increased, while it has also increased the number of universities with which it has tie-ups.

TNAU is 28th in the National Institutional Ranking Framework, but is yet to make it to the top 50 in any global ranking system.

While the university conducted a three-day networking workshop on climate, biodiversity and food security in association with Queen’s university, England, earlier this week, last week it decided to collaborate with the International Rice Research Institute on digital agriculture. “We have tie-ups with many institutes across the world including Ivy league institutions,” said international student collaboration in charge, T Raguchander. “Every year, two to three students go to the US for study, research or fellowships through our tie-ups.”

The bigger focus is on getting more international students to visit TNAU and pursue research, studies or fellowships. “The number of international students visiting TNAU has been increasing from hardly two or three before 2013 to almost 16 to 17 students a year in the last couple of years,” he said. “The students mainly come from countries like Bhutan, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Nepal among others. We have had a few from Canada too,” he added.

The university now has a student from Dalhousie University’s Agricultural campus, Nova Scotia, Hannah Arseneault, studying nematode identification techniques. “The plant pathologist in my university, Dr Prithviraj suggested I train in TNAU on identification of nematodes, their types and ways to manage it. It has been a valuable experience learning about plant parasitic nematodes, ways to collect soil samples, roots to check for infestation among others,” she said.

The number of students visiting from Western countries seems low. “It is because their cropping pattern is different and they have more temperate region crops compared to our tropical climate,” said Prabhakaran, director, plant protection studies. “They still come for our expertise in nanotechnology, nematology, etc.”

The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in Coimbatore

Pvt college officials held for misbehaviour

Correspondent, Two Directors Arrested

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai:21.03.2019

The correspondent and two women directors of a private paramedical college in Kanyakumari district were on Wednesday arrested by police on charges of misbehaving with women staff and students and outraging the modesty of a staff member.

The incident came to light on Tuesday after the relatives of a staff member and students staged a protest at the Jacob Memorial College of Paramedical Sciences and Research at Erachakulam seeking action against the accused. The college had around 80 boys and girls studied and 10 staff members.

The accused were identified as correspondent Ravi, 35, , director Nalini, 30, and assistant director Kala, 28. They were booked under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 506(ii) (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.

Sources said the behaviour of the correspondent, who allegedly used double entendre, made the students and even the women staff uncomfortable. The women directors reportedly were hand in glove with Ravi. Some staff even quit as they were unable to tolerate the acts of indecency, the sources added.

G Jawahar, assistant superintendent of police of Nagercoil subdivision, said there were quite a few allegations against the correspondent. Jawahar, who conducted a preliminary inquiry into the incident, talking to those affected and other staff and students, told TOI that a couple of days ago, the correspondent had tried to misbehave with a staff member at the college but she managed to escape.

She went home in tears and informed her family members. On Tuesday, her agitated relatives went to the institution and staged a demonstration seeking action against the correspondent and the women directors. Students too joined the protest, following which police promised action. The same night, Ravi was picked up for questioning. The two women were picked up on Wednesday morning.

“After inquiries with the affected staff and a few students, we arrested the trio on Wednesday. We will conduct further inquiries into the incident and record the statements of other staff and students,” the ASP said.

Police sources said inquiries would also be conducted to check if there had been incidents of sexual abuse or harassment of students and staff in the past. If so, the case would be modified and appropriate sections added to it, they said.

The arrest of the college management representatives, including the two women directors, took place on a day that tainted professor Nirmala Devi of Virudhunagar district, accused of luring girl students into extending sexual favours to higher officials, was released on bail.

Against the backdrop of the Pollachi sex abuse scandal, this incident has left the student community shocked .

Protests continue in Pollachi case

Coimbatore:

Government Law College students continued their sit-in protest for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, demanding that police withdraw the FIR against 167 students for seeking justice in the Pollachi sexual harassment case.

“How fair is it to file a case against students who protested seeking justice in the sexual harassment case? The students have done nothing wrong to invite a police case. Some of the students are in the final year and an FIR against them would create a black mark,” said S Jaisurya, one of the students who filed a petition with Superintendent of Police P Pandiyaraj on Wednesday.

Jaisurya sought the intervention of court to form a special team to investigate the case without bias as there were allegations regarding the involvement of police officers and local leaders in the case.

“As the SP had revealed the identity of the victim, no other victim has come forward to lodge a complaint. Condemning this, we have sought the removal of the SP from the case,” the student said. TNN