Health staff stays aloof from guv, gap widens

Health staff stays aloof from guv, gap widens

Sribala.Vadlapatla@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad:  09.07.2020

Is there concern not just among senior government officials but also among doctors about governor Tamilisai Soundararajan’s visits to hospitals to take stock of Covid-19 situation? It appears so, going by the reluctance of the authorities of Gandhi Hospital — the nodal Covid hospital in Telangana — to allow the first citizen of the state when she wished to visit the hospital.

Some time back, the governor had visited the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, interacted with Covid-19 patients and the doctors treating them. The governor said she visited NIMS — where several doctors had tested positive for coronavirus — to express solidarity with the medical professionals as she is a doctor herself.

She even said the government’s response to her letters on handling of Covid-19 had been lukewarm and implored the TRS government to follow the Centre’s guidelines by increasing the testing and sharing information with people on impact of the virus.

That was enough for senior officials to distance themselves from Raj Bhavan. Chief secretary Somesh Kumar and special CS, health, Santhi Kumari gave a meeting called by the governor a miss on Monday. Eventually, the meeting was cancelled.

That the state health department was also not happy about her visit to NIMS could be gauged by the officials’ attempts to dissuade her from making a visit to Gandhi Hospital. Despite her several attempts, a visit to Gandhi has not materialised till now. Highly-placed sources told TOI that she was keen to visit Gandhi Hospital first before making a trip to NIMS. “But, some ‘forces,’ including senior doctors, are opposing her visit,” an official said. “No one wants to upset the top brass, especially when there is a strong perception that there are serious differences between the TRS government and Raj Bhavan,” the official added.

Not just us, many believe that the gap between Raj Bhavan and the TRS regime is widening. We also did not attend the meeting as we cannot afford to rub the government on the wrong side,” a top executive of a corporate hospital told TOI.

“Remember, she was a leading gynaecologist in Tamil Nadu before coming here and taking over as a governor.She is concerned about the pandemic and health of the people. So, she does take extra interest in the health of Covid-affected people,” a Raj Bhavan source told TOI.

Another factor which might have upset the government was governor Tamilisai Soundararajan being ‘active’ on Twitter and talking about coronavirus cases’ review and her visits

NTA to review JEE Jan cycle, NEET 2021 after schools reopen

NTA to review JEE Jan cycle, NEET 2021 after schools reopen

Manash.Gohain@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: 09.07.2020

As schools continue to remain shut and entrance examinations for admission to engineering and medical courses have been repeatedly postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Testing Agency has decided to take a review of the January-cycle of JEE (Main) after the schools reopen.

The JEE (main) was converted to ‘twice a year’ affair in 2019 – January and April cycles. The computer-based competitive exam for April 2020 had to be postponed twice due to the Covid-19 outbreak and is now slated to be held in September. In view of the delay, NTA plans to review the January 2021 exam.

A senior official in the HRD ministry said, “NTA will take a call depending on the prevailing situation after the schools reopen. The agency will also have to take into consideration Board exams, specially of CBSE and whether the 2021 Board exams can be conducted in February.”

The official said any further postponement of reopening of schools and other school exams will impact the schedule of JEE (Main) as well as NEET-UG of 2021.

Sources in CBSE said it is too early to predict.

The other exams likely to be impacted are national level entrance exams such as Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) and Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test (GPAT), which are conducted around the last week of January besides UGC-NET of December, 2020.

According to National Testing Agency sources, postponement of JEE (Main) and NEET-UG to September will have a cascading effect and push the JNU and DU entrance exams to October.

Varsity exam nod upsets students

Varsity exam nod upsets students

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

09.07.2020

Bengaluru: Undergraduate and postgraduate students are upset with the central government’s decision to allow universities to conduct final-term exams this year, saying online classes had been not useful and some physical sessions should be held before the papers.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) is expected to advise universities to hold exams before September-end. The department of higher education in Karnataka is expected to convene a meeting of vicechancellors on Thursday to discuss the issue.

Students said after concerns about the effectiveness of web sessions, many universities had promised to conduct on-campus classes before exams. They fear the exams will be fast-tracked and they won’t get enough time to prepare.

The All India Democratic Students’ Organisation has demanded cancellation of final-year exams. “Recently, the Supreme Court allowed cancellation of CBSE and ICSE exams. The number of students under UGC is much larger. Most of the institutions have not completed the syllabus and the reach of online classes is negligible in the country. The decision to conduct the examination has come as a rude shock to students,” it said.

Sowmya KP, a BSc student, wondered whether it was safe for candidates, who had returned to their hometowns, to travel amid a spike in infections. KR Venugopal, V-C, Bangalore University, said when and how the exams should be conducted would be discussed at Thursday’s meeting. “If we are to conduct exams, we need physical classes. For that, hostels have to be open,” he said. Full report toi.in

Work-from-home staff seek allowance as power bills surge

Work-from-home staff seek allowance as power bills surge

Petlee.Peter @timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:  09.07.2020

Psychiatrist and family counsellor Vidhya Mohan works from her flat in 3rd Block, Koramangala, these days. Her monthly electricity bill, she says, gives her a panic attack. The bill just doesn’t seem to dip since the lockdown began.

The 35-year-old is one of the many salaried staffers in Bengaluru who is working from home since mid-March and getting huge bills. “I have asked my office if they can reimburse me 25% of the monthly power expenses, something similar to the house rent allowance. This is one of the discussions in our work group,” Vidhya says.

Many feel since the companies are saving big on power expenses now, they should provide electricity allowance for employees. “My electricity bill used to be around Rs 2,300, but for March and April, it was over Rs 8,900. I’ve been working from home all through the lockdown period, but it’s just an extra fan and light which was probably on for 12 hours,” says a puzzled Shailesh Kumar from Mahadevapura, a techie.

Meanwhile, Bescom claimed consumers had to pay more as there was heavy consumption at home during this period. The utility has elaborated on the issue on social media and asked consumers to call the Bescom helpline or visit the local sub division for clarification.

However, human resource personnel opined that it’s not a viable option during the crisis. “People are trying to save their jobs, so there may be no scope for any additional allowance. Moreover, policy change is needed to grant such allowances,” said an HR executive with an IT firm.

Some names have been changed on request

Some IT firms offer furniture, dongles

Some firms in Bengaluru, mainly in the IT sector, are offering office furniture, dongles and UPS to their staff working from home. “We’ve been given an allowance to purchase an office chair as we’ll be working from home till the end of the year. A small percentage towards our power bills can also be granted,” says an engineer.

GTU students with backlogs to be assessed on MBP

GTU students with backlogs to be assessed on MBP

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:  09.07.2020

The Gujarat Technological University (GTU) has reiterated its earlier stand to use merit-based progression system (internal marks and past semester results to assess undergraduate students in their final semester having backlogs. The decision will benefit approximately 25,000 students in GTU-affiliated colleges.

“The GTU academic council had decided in the past to evaluate terminal semester undergraduate students on ‘merit-based progression’,” said Navin Sheth, vice-chancellor, GTU, on Wednesday.

The state government had introduced the merit-based progression scheme (MBP) for evaluation of students when exams were not possible in time.

According to the latest University Grants Commission guidelines, students of terminal semesters or finalyear students having backlog should compulsorily be evaluated by conducting examinations in offline or online or blended (online + offline) mode according to feasibility and suitability.

Earlier this month, the GTU had to call off the exams slated from July 2. The decision came at the eleventh hour after the state government announced that the exams for all universities and colleges in the state have been cancelled.

As many as 54,000 students had registered to take the theory exams that were to begin from July 2. GTU had appointed observers and set up 350 exam centres across the state.

UGC recently issued the revised guidelines by which the terminal semester and final-year examinations are to be held by the end of September either on pen and paper, online, or in blended (online and pen & paper) format.

In case a student cannot appear in September, provisions will be made so the candidate can take the exams later, according to the guidelines.

Recently, several states including Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, and West Bengal had cancelled their exams amid a surge in Covid-19 cases.

Confusion over medical course exams

Confusion over medical course exams

Ahmedabad:  09.07.2020

Confusion prevailed at Gujarat University over conducting medical, dental and paramedical exams. While the newly released University Grants Commission’s guidelines states that the varsities have to conduct terminal semester and final year exam for all undergraduate students, it allows candidates of intermediate semesters to be assessed on internal marks and previous semester performance.

Gujarat University has already begun conducting exams for paramedical students including intermediate semester candidates and now with no clarity from the state government too, the authorities are stuck it seems.

The varsity has also begun preparations for conducting theory exams for medical students which is slated to be held by the end of this month. “The exams are to be held for all semester medical and dental students. There is confusion now on whether to call off exams for intermediate semester students or continue with our plan,” said a GU official. TNN

Untraceable Covid patients a new challenge for Haryana

Untraceable Covid patients a new challenge for Haryana

Manvir.Saini@timesgroup.com

Chandigarh  09.07.2020

: Haryana’s health department faces a new challenge in battling Covid-19 — of people who give the wrong address or conceal their identity when their sample is being taken and later test positive for the virus.

As a result, hundreds of patients have been untraceable. This is largely happening in NCR districts and has sent the health department and district administrations in a tizzy. There is a mismatch of 1600 such patents in Faridabad district alone and Gurgaon too has a good number of such patients, confirmed an official. Also, patients from other districts and residents of Haryana travelling by air too have been untraceable. “In some cases, persons had given wrong addresses and wrong contact details. Civil surgeons had shared this information with local administration as well as police for further action,’’ said director general of health services Dr S B Kamboj.

He said they had now taken several measures to prevent such lapses. “Laboratories have been directed to ensure correct contact details and crosscheck everything by making a verification call and taking Aadhaar details of the person,’’ said Kamboj.

Faridabad DC Yash Pal Yadav too admitted to the threat caused by people who were giving wrong details “During the probe, we had found that besides misrepresentation of facts, there had been incidents where reports were uploaded late and the person had moved moved to another place. We have held meetings with laboratories. Some labs have been served showcause notices,” said Faridabad DC.

Laboratories have been directed to ensure they take correct contact details and crosscheck everything by making a verification call and asking for Aadhaar details

DR S B KAMBOJ Director general of health services