NRI quota medical seats being sold? HC issues directives for TN govt

...Inquires if appropriate procedures had been followed in the selection of candidates

Published: 26th September 2019 05:30 AM 

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: OBSERVING allegation that managements of private medical colleges in the State have filled up NRI quota without following merits by getting huge sums for those seats, a division bench of the Madras High Court has issued a set of directives to the State government.

They included calling for the list of candidates admitted under the NRI, State and all India quotas with their respective marks (category wise viz., OC, BC, MBC etc). The reply shall be submitted on September 26.

Originally, one S Dheeran of Coimbatore approached the court for a direction to the State, to undertake the necessary and proper counselling and mop-up procedure to fill up 207 seats that had become available owing to non-filling of NRI quota, as per merit and prescribed procedure. And the plea was rejected by a single judge. Hence, the present appeal.

The appellant’s counsel told the bench of Justices, N Kirubakaran and P Velmurugan, that as per clause 11 of the prospectus issued by the selection committee, unfilled NRI quota seats in the first round of counselling should be filled up only from the NRI candidates through manual counselling and they should not have been reverted back to the management quota. About 260 seats were earmarked under the NRI quota, of which only 53 were filled up.

As per the judgement of the Apex Court, the State government should have conducted manual counselling for allotment of students and after the completion of counselling, it should determine the number of seats that were still vacant and thereafter, forward a list of students in the order of merit, equalling to ten times the number of vacant seats to the medical college. However, the 207 seats under the NRI quota remained vacant and without conducting manual counselling for those seats, the State returned it to the managements, which had filled up them allegedly, without following merits by getting huge sums.

Answers sought

The judges noted that a candidate had obtained admission in a medical college by impersonation. “Therefore, the following queries are raised to be answered by the State in the next hearing,” the judges said.

How many obtained admission in medical colleges by impersonation? 

Whether authorities verified identity of those who wrote NEET and those who got admission

Whether any
other case of impersonation 

or cheating had
been detected 

What is the stage of the case filed against the Theni college student
Is it a fact that the Principal of Theni Medical College had not taken any action in time in spite of knowing about the fraudulent admission

Tangedco to suspend power on Thursday

For carrying out maintenance work, power supply will be suspended by Tangedco on Thursday (September 26) from 9 am to 5 pm in these following areas.

Published: 25th September 2019 06:28 AM |

By Express News Service

For carrying out maintenance work, power supply will be suspended by Tangedco on Thursday (September 26) from 9 am to 5 pm in these following areas. According to a statement from Tangedco, power supply will be resumed before 5 pm if work is completed.

CMBT: Annapoorna Nagar, Prakash Nagar, Annapoorni Nagar, Ponniammanmedu, Thanigasalam Nagar, EF Block, Majestic Colony, Iyyappa Nagar, Munusamy Nagar, Devaki Nagar area.
THIRUVERKADU: Thiruverkadu, Thiruverkadu Coop Nagar, Theroodum Veethi, Sivan Koil Road, Sunaracholapuram, Kasturibai Nagar, Aravind Nagar, Kamadenu Nagar, Pallikupam, Mathiravedu, PH Road, Kaveri Nagar, Ishwarya Garden, Jayalakshimi Nagar, Royal Garden, Mac Nagar, Lourdupuram, Puliambedu Road, VGN Mahalakshimi Nagar, Rajankuppam, Ponniaman Nagar.

MANJAMBAKKAM: South Telephone Colony Part, North Telephone Colony, Padmavathi Nagar, Cheliayamman Nagar, Kamban Nagar, Azees Nagar, AVM Nagar, Perumal Koil Street, Mandaveli, Telugu Colony, Ramachandra Nagar, Ramana Avenue, Krishna Nagar, JJ Nagar, Manjambakkam, Kamarajar Salai Part, VGK Nagar, Thirumurugan Nagar, Kathirvelan Street.

Power shutdown in parts of Chennai on Sept 27

As a part of routine maintenance works, Tangedo will be suspending power supply in areas like Ramapuram and Porur.

Published: 26th September 2019 05:41 AM

For carrying out maintenance work, power supply will be suspended.

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: For carrying out maintenance work, power supply will be suspended by Tangedco on Friday (Sept 27) from 9 am to 5 pm in these following areas. According to a statement from Tangedco, power supply will be resumed before 5 pm if work is completed. Here is the list.

PORUR: Vigneshwara nagar part, Lakshmi nagar, Himachal nagar, Rani G Nagar, Ponni nagar, Santhosh nagar, Mugalivakkam main road, Subaiya nagar, Ramachandra nagar, Sivaji nagar, Annai velankanni nagar, Madha nagar part, Balaji nagar, vijaylakshmi nagar.

RAMAPURAM: Tamil Nagar, Sabari nagar, Shanthi nagar, Anandam nagar, Kurinji nagar, Gangaiamman koil st, Naidu st, Kambar salai, Balambigai nagar, Ambal nagar.

VELACHERY EAST: V.V. Koil st, MG nagar, Tharamani 100 feet road, New colony, Seethapathy nagar, margidass road, Kogulam st.

Fake MBBS admission racket busted with arrest of three

26/09/2019, PRESS TRUST OF INDIA,NOIDA

With the arrest of three men, Police on Wednesday claimed to have cracked a blind murder case and busted a fake MBBS admission racket.

The accused, held from the Zero Point on the Yamuna Expressway on Tuesday evening, were running a fake call centre named “Crack Your Career” through which they duped MBBS aspirants pan India, the police said.

A body was found near Wajidpur village on September 9 and a probe revealed the identity of the deceased as Sanjeev Rawat alias Rishi, who was an employee of “Crack Your Future” consultancy, SSP, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Vaibhav Krishna said.

“Investigation led the police to the accused men. Three of them have been arrested while four are absconding,” Mr. Krishna said.

Those arrested have been identified as Neeraj Singh alias Harendra Singh, 30, Nikhil Gaurav alias Sameer Rai, 25, and Dhirendra Kumar alias Sonal Singh, 41, he said.

“The gang had an office in Janakpuri, Delhi and one in Noida. They had gathered data of candidates aspiring for admission in prominent medical colleges. They would call up gullible candidates and offer them help with admission for a price and then vanish,” he said.

Five-year jail to ex-IAS officer for forgery

For procuring weapons by fudging documents; 81-year-old denied soft punishment.

26/09/2019, NIRNIMESH KUMAR,NEW DELHI

A Delhi court has awarded five years imprisonment to an 81-year-old retired IAS officer for procuring licensed weapons on forged documents in Nagaland in 1985. He was posted there at that time.

According to the prosecution, he had purchased these weapons after obtaining a licence by hiding the fact that he had already been issued three licences, the maximum he was entitled to under the law.

Further, he committed forgeries by making alterations in the licence to purchase two weapons and 2,000 cartridges in excess of the permission. He was licensed to purchase one weapon and 200 cartridges.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Anu Aggarwal held accused S.S. Ahluwalia guilty under Section 417 (cheating) read with Section 415 (to deceive any person to deliver a property), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) read with Section 467 (forgery) of IPC and Section 25 of Arms Act, 1959.

Counsel for the accused urged the court to award him a lenient punishment keeping in view his old age and the ailments he was suffering from. But the ACMM rejected it.

Acted contrary to law

“The convict is guilty of deliberate, calculated manipulation of the system he enjoyed a supreme position in. He, being a serving IAS officer, was duty bound to uphold the rule of law but he acted contrary and purchased weapons in contravention of the Arms Act and that too on the basis of forgery in the arms licence of which he was aware of being forged,” the ACMM said.

“He was clearly in the knowledge that his acts would lead to corrosion of the very institution of the government from within. Taking a lenient view of the convict’s covert corrupt practices will not only rob this court of its sanctity, but will also lead to public derision of the very concept of rule of law,” the ACMM said in the sentence order dismissing the plea for a soft punishment.

High Court orders counselling for boy

He wants to stay with a man of criminal antecedents

26/09/2019, STAFF REPORTER,MADURAI

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has come across the case of a boy, under the influence of a man with criminal antecedents, who informed the court that he did not want to continue his studies and only wanted to stay with the man.

The boy told the court that if he was not allowed to do so, he would take an extreme step. However, the court also learnt of the fact that the boy had been abandoned by the man.

A Division Bench of Justices S. Vaidyanathan and N. Anand Venkatesh expressed its shock after the boy told the court that if an order to his liking was not passed, he would commit suicide. Taking into account that he was only a minor, the court said he was clearly addicted to certain habits of the man and he was not talking from his senses.

Habeas corpus plea

Hearing the habeas corpus petition filed by a relative of the boy from Tirunelveli, who sought a direction to the police to secure him, the court observed that the boy needed counselling and should be completely removed from the company of the man. The court ordered the custody of the boy to the Child Welfare Committee. There should be regular counselling and close monitoring of the boy, it said.

The court took cognisance of the fact that the man had managed to get a fake Aadhaar card for the boy, in a bid to usurp his properties.

A legal heirship certificate was obtained and power of attorney registered by furnishing bogus documents. The documents were executed by the minor, which is non-est in the eye of the law, the court said.

Passing a series of directions, the court ordered cancellation of the documents which should be reflected in the encumbrance certificate. It also ordered an inquiry into the case by the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Palayamkottai, and to ensure that nobody illegally occupied the properties of the boy. The Assistant Commissioner should keep the keys of the properties.

The court sought to know if the boy could be accommodated in a residential school and adjourned the hearing till October 15. The Assistant Commissioner was asked to be present before the court along with the boy.

Medical student traced to Tirupati

26/09/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT ,CHENNAI

CB-CID officers on Wednesday traced Udit Surya K.V., who has been accused of securing medical admission in a fraudulent manner, his father Dr. Venkatesh and his mother to Tirupati, and secured them.

A top police officer said: “Our special team traced the student and his parents to Tirupati. They have been secured and are being brought to Theni. On completing interrogation, we will produce them in a court in Theni in case of arrest.”

The Theni police had booked a case against Udit Surya for alleged impersonation in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and securing admission in the Government Medical College in Theni. He had engaged a person to appear in the NEET held in Mumbai and counselling, but had taken the seat and attended college.

The case surfaced after the dean received two emails on September 11 and 13 from a person identified as Ashok Krishnan from Chennai, complaining about Udit Surya. The email said that the boy had attempted NEET twice and failed. In his third attempt, he appeared for the exam in Mumbai and cleared it. However, the subsequent email claimed that the boy, currently pursuing the course, was not the same as the one who appeared for the test.

The officials of the Theni Medical College found that the photograph on the admission card did not match the original identity of the student.

After being exposed, Udit Surya furnished a discontinuation letter claiming depression and later absconded. The police formed special teams and one team visited Chennai, where the parents of the student resided. Later the case was transferred to CB-CID for further investigation.