State was not kept in the dark on anti-NEET Bills, govt. tells court

‘The information was shared in the Assembly in June 2018’

14/08/2019, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

Denying the claim that the State was kept kept in the dark for two years with regard to the President having withheld his assent to two anti-NEET Bills passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly in February 2017, the Tamil Nadu government on Monday told the Madras High Court that the information was shared in the Assembly as early as on June 28, 2018.

Advocate-General Vijay Narayan submitted before a Division Bench of Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad the proceedings of the debate that took place on the subject in the Assembly last year and said the information was shared by Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar to a query raised by none other than the Leader of the Opposition M.K. Stalin.

As per the proceedings published under the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Rules, Mr. Stalin wanted to know the status of the two Bills passed by the Assembly on February 1, 2017, since Rajya Sabha member T.K. Rangarajan of Communist Party of India (Marxist) had reportedly received a letter stating that the President’s office had not received the Bills.

Replying to it, the Health Minister clearly stated that the President had withheld his assent to the Bills and that the State government had written to the Centre seeking the reasons for having done so. Since the discussion had taken place on June 28, 2018, there was no question of the State or the Assembly having been kept in the dark on the issue, the A-G clarified.

He also brought it to the notice of the court that the State Law Secretary had written as many as 11 letters to the Union Home Ministry between October 25, 2017 and July 5, 2019 seeking reasons for the President having withheld assent so that the shortcomings, if any, in the two Bills could be rectified but there was no positive response so far.

The submissions were made during the hearing of a batch of public interest litigation petitions filed in 2017 seeking a direction to the State government to expedite the process of obtaining Presidential assent for the two Bills aimed at granting exemption for students of the State from writing National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) to gain admission in medical courses.

After recording his submission, the Division Bench disposed of all the cases since the prayer had become infructuous in view of the subsequent developments that had taken place.

The President had withheld his assent for the Bills on September 18, 2017. Therefore, the Union Home Ministry had returned them to the State government on September 22, 2017. The petitioners would have to file fresh writ petitions challenging the subsequent proceedings subject to their maintainability, the judges observed.

During the course of hearing, they also said the use of the term ‘withhold assent’ instead of ‘refuse assent’ in Article 201 of the Constitution might have led to a lot of confusion on the issue.

Minister orders departmental action against principal

14/08/2019, STAFF REPORTER ,COIMBATORE

Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar said that departmental action would be initiated against the principal in-charge of the nursing college in Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) for allegedly not being aware of the government schemes.

During his interaction with nursing students at CMCH, Mr. Vijayabaskar asked about various schemes in the health sector. They allegedly drew a blank.

The Minister then asked the principal (in-charge) about the schemes and she also allegedly did not know about them, following which he asked CMCH Dean B. Asokan to initiate departmental action against her.

Mr. Asokan could not be reached for a comment regarding the issue.

Later, Mr. Vijayabaskar, along with Municipal Administration Minister S.P. Velumani, inaugurated the pneumococcal vaccination drive and the vascular surgery unit at CMCH.

With slump in demand, many private dental colleges slash fee
Dwindling job opportunities are said to be the cause

14/08/2019, TANU KULKARNI,BENGALURU

It is not just engineering colleges that are struggling to fill their seats. In view of poor demand, private dental colleges too have slashed their fee, with some charging only a half of what they are allowed to charge.

For the 2019-20 academic year, private dental colleges are allowed to charge ₹72,484 and ₹5.32 lakh annually for government and institutional quota seats, respectively. While all colleges are charging the full rate for government quota seats, many have changed the fee for institutional quota seats, which is now anywhere between ₹2.78 lakh and ₹4 lakh a year. Many of top dental colleges in Bengaluru are willing charge ₹5.32 lakh.

Over the last three to four years, NRI and management quota seats — categorised as ‘other’ — have also seen a decline in demand. This year, the fee is in the range of ₹2.78 lakh to ₹9.28 lakh.

Dental college managements point out that this is because of dwindling job opportunities in this sector. “Today, the number of dentists required is not very high,” the principal of a Bengaluru-based private dental college said.

According to the principal, the managements of many dental colleges did not want the fee hiked for 2019-20. However, the government increased the fee by 15% as their respective associations fought for it. “The top dental colleges that make up for 10% of the colleges will get their seats filled as students will be willing to pay for these seats. But the remaining colleges will have no takers. So colleges are willingly reducing the fee,” the principal said.

Several dental colleges deployed agents to help them fill seats after the introduction of NEET. “With this, students from across the country can choose colleges in the State. For the most part, agents have been promised up to 30% of the annual fee if they are able to pursue students to take their management and NRI quota seats when the seats are surrendered to the colleges after the mop-up round,” a senior professor said.

‘No unqualified teachers in affiliated colleges’
MKU’s reply comes on HC direction

14/08/2019, SANJANA GANESH

There are no unqualified teachers in the affiliated colleges of Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU), according to an affidavit filed before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court by Registrar (in-charge) R. Sudha. The HC Bench had directed the MKU, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University and the University of Madras to ensure adherence to UGC norms on a contempt petition filed by a former professor, M. Anandakrishnan.

MKU Vice-Chancellor M. Krishnan told The Hindu on Tuesday that vacancies created by unqualified teachers would be filled up as per UGC norms in a month.

The retired professor filed the petition following ‘failure of the universities’ to adhere to the order of the court, which had directed that those recruited as teachers must possess a Ph.D. or should have cleared National Eligibility Test (NET) or State-level Eligibility Test (SLET).

Dr. Krishnan and the Registrar (in-charge) confirmed that there were no unqualified teachers in the university and its 100 affiliated colleges.

“We can be assured that all appointments have been made at the MKU, its constituent colleges and the day college as per UGC norms,” said Dr. Krishnan.

Madurai Kamaraj, Manonmaniam Sundaranar, Mother Teresa and Alagappa University Teachers’ Association (MUTA) treasurer A.T. Senthamaraikannan welcomed the appointment of qualified teachers.

“But it is a request to colleges and the university that they should allow the teachers employed now to continue in service. Many of them have worked for years with a pittance for salary. They can surely qualify themselves, if enough leeway is given to them,” he said.

Though the university authorities claim that there were no qualified teachers in the affiliated colleges, a teacher from Yadava College, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that most of the unqualified teachers had been removed. But some continued to work in nearby colleges. They had made special request to their colleges, he said.

R. Murali, convenor, Save Higher Education Movement – Tamil Nadu, said that the MKU had finally responded to their petition and taken action. However, if a six-month extension was provided by the government and a special SLET conducted, the teachers in service could qualify themselves, he said.

The HC had, on July 18, directed the Registrar to submit a report to the UGC on the number of unqualified teachers and action initiated against them.

Nursery student raped in school, sweeper held

14/08/2019,NEW DELHI

A five-year-old nursery student was allegedly raped inside a school in south Delhi’s Chittaranjan Park. The accused, a sweeper, has been arrested, the police said.

Woman dead in Sydney knife rampage

14/08/2019, REUTERS,SYDNEY

A man went on a stabbing rampage in Sydney on Tuesday, killing a woman and wounding another before he was restrained by members of the public, police said, adding that they were not treating it as a terrorist incident.

The 21-year-old man, who police did not name, was carrying a knife and a computer thumb drive containing information about deadly attacks in North America and New Zealand, police said.

Video images on Twitter showed him yelling and waving what appeared to be a long-bladed knife. He was later restrained by passers-by.

57.3% allopathic practitioners not qualified: Health Ministry
CMs of all States have been asked to take appropriate action
14/08/2019, BINDU SHAJAN PERAPPADAN,NEW DELHI

The Union Health Ministry has warned that an uneven distribution of qualified doctors puts rural patients at risk. “At present, 57.3% of personnel currently practising allopathic medicine do not have a medical qualification,” says the Ministry’s data, adding that this puts rural patients at risk given the high density of doctors in urban areas and India’s poor doctor-population ratio of 1:1456 as compared with the World Health Organisation standards of 1:1000.

‘A huge skew’

“There is a huge skew in the distribution of doctors working in the urban and rural areas. Consequently, most of our rural and poor population is denied good quality care, leaving them in the clutches of quacks,” said Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.

Section 15 of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, prohibits a person other than a medical practitioner enrolled on a State Medical Register to practice medicine in the State.

“We have requested all Chief Ministers of all the States to take appropriate action under the law against quacks, and also to evolve suitable policies to ensure availability of a quality health workforce in rural areas,” said a senior health official.

According to government records, a total of 11,46,044 allopathic doctors were registered with the State Medical Councils/ Medical Council of India as on December 31, 2018.

Mid-level professionals

Professor K. Srinath Reddy of the Public Health Foundation of India noted that the wide gaps in comprehensive primary healthcare services for many rural areas need to be filled through competent mid-level healthcare providers who are adequately trained, technologically enabled and legally empowered.

The Health Ministry states that it is now looking into bringing in mid-level healthcare providers to relieve overburdened specialists.