Kerala Cuts Salary, 80 percent Junior Doctors quit COVID duty

Kerala Cuts Salary, 80 percent Junior Doctors quit COVID duty: Kerala: In a major uproar, more than 80 percent of junior doctors appointed to COVID-19 duty have submitted their resignation letter while protesting against the government's decision of implementing...

MP HC serves notice to Index Medical college, State, MCI over alleged fault in PG medical admissions

MP HC serves notice to Index Medical college, State, MCI over alleged fault in PG medical admissions: Madhya Pradesh: On the matter of alleged fault in PG medical admission process, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has served notice to Index Medical College, the Director of Medical Education, State...

Varsities to finish PG intake by Sept 30

Varsities to finish PG intake by Sept 30

TNN | Sep 4, 2020, 04.57 AM IST

Ahmedabad: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has directed all varsities to complete admissions for postgraduate programmes before September 30.

If students are yet to get their undergraduate results, the varsity has instructed colleges to give them admission on provisional basis before the end of this month.

There are many universities in Gujarat including Gujarat University that are yet to complete the first round of annual college exams.

“Gujarat University is holding its first phase of in-person exams from September 3. These exams will end on September 20 and the results are expected in October. So many students at GU will have to take admission in PG courses on provisional basis,” said GU sources. UGC brought out these new guidelines to ensure students do not lose a semester due to the Covid-19 crisis, sources added.

Gujarat University’s first phase of exams began on Thursday, for which 21,008 candidates had registered. The varsity, which has more than 350 colleges affiliated to it, will conduct exams at 102 centres in the state.

The varsity is conducting exams for arts, commerce, science and law students in two phases from September 3 and September 12. About 70,000 students at various GU-affiliated colleges are expected to take the in-person exams that are to end on September 20.

Fake degree racket busted in Bodakdev

Fake degree racket busted in Bodakdev

TNN | Sep 4, 2020, 04.59 AM IST

Ahmedabad: City police on Wednesday busted a fake degree racket run from a Bodakdev flat and held two persons who sold forged degree certificates of various universities. The duo, Chintan Patel and Prajesh Jani, who were held from Ramjarukha apartments, were trapped with the help of a decoy.

According to the complaint filed with Vastrapur police, constable Govind Narshi had learned on July 27 that the duo were selling forged degree certificates. A woman LRD jawan of Vastrapur police station, Rinku Mulji, acted as a decoy and contacted Patel for a BCom degree of Gujarat University. She said she wanted the degree to go abroad for higher education. Patel demanded Rs 10 lakh for a degree and a marksheet with high marks.

When Mulji said she couldn’t give Rs 10 lakh, Patel told her that he could provide a diploma certificate of mechanical engineering from Madras University and also a migration certificate. He said the papers will be ready in 15 days. On September 1, Jani called up Mulji and told her the documents were ready and she could collect them after paying Rs 3 lakh.

Mulji, along with other cops went to the duo’s apartment on Wednesday. When they arrived with the degree and certificate, cops rushed in and nabbed Patel and Jani.Vastrapur police booked the duo for cheating and forgery.

Run service on September 13 for NEET, West Bengal government urges Kolkata Metro

Run service on September 13 for NEET, West Bengal government urges Kolkata Metro

TNN | Sep 4, 2020, 04.11 AM IST

KOLKATA: The Bengal government has requested Metro Railways to run their service on September 13 for the benefit of NEET candidates. A meeting between the state government and Metro authorities was held on Thursday to discuss the modalities of crowd control, which the latter is keen on having in place before resuming services after a five-month hiatus.

The meeting at Nabanna, the state headquarters, started at 11.30am. Among those present were home secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, transport secretary Prabhat Kumar Mishra, police commissioner Anuj Sharma, ADG (traffic) Vivek Sahay, state health secretary N S Nigam and KMC commissioner Vinod Kumar. Metro Railway principal chief operations manager (PCOM) Satyaki Nath led the three-member Metro team.

Crucial logistical and planning details were discussed at the meeting, which lasted an hour. When services do re-start, passengers may have to furnish an e-pass or a smart card to a police officer to enter a station. The policeman would perhaps let them enter only after getting a green light from RPF personnel that passengers already at the station have moved to the platform to board a train. In other words, the state and Metro will have to work together as a team to ensure anti-Covid distancing protocols are stuck to.

Another meeting is scheduled at noon on Friday for the technical committee, which was formed on Thursday with officials from Kolkata Police, the state transport department and Metro Railway.

“The committee will deduce how to control access to stations and implement graded services, considering that 3.5 lakh people may have smart cards,” a senior state official told TOI. Metro wants to allow only smart-card holders; no token will be sold from counters.

It also hasn’t been decided yet whether the Kolkata Metro would run just for that day, or whether September 13 would mark the resumption of regular services.

Whether it will be e-passes or smart cards to ensure legitimate access is something that will be clinched in the next few days. “Initial discussions took place today. There will be some more to finalize the modalities. For elaborate SOPs, two or three more meetings may be required,” Metro Railway general manager Manoj Joshi told TOI. The focus of Thursday’s meeting, he added, was crowd control. It would be the starting point of Friday’s meeting as well.

Joint CP (headquarters) Subhankar Sinha Sarkar and transport commissioner Biswajit Dutta, members of the technical committee, will thrash out the standard operating protocol with their Metro counterparts at Friday’s virtual meeting and decide whether e-passes can be issued to commuters through an app. The draft SOP also includes 8am-to-8pm services, with a third of Metro’s existing fleet of 288 trains, that may be run seven days a week, at a 12- or 15- minute gap. Frequencies will reduce further during weekends.

Standing passengers may be allowed in a Metro coach. “The seats are only on the sides. So, it will be possible for commuters to maintain some distance, even if some of them stand,” a Metro official explained. One thing that emerged from Thursday’s meeting was that while the onus of implementing distancing inside stations and coaches was on the RPF, crowd control at the entries was the state police’s responsibility. While Bengal Police and Kolkata Police would keep guard outside north-south stations, for East-West Metro, the job will be done by the Bidhannagar Police.

Agra varsity to conduct OMR based exam for final year students

Agra varsity to conduct OMR based exam for final year students

TNN | Sep 3, 2020, 04.24 AM IST

Agra: Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar University will be conducting exams for the session 2019-20 for the final year students of undergraduate and postgraduate courses from September 11. The exam will be based on optical mark recognition (OMR). Students will have to answer around 60 multiple choice questions in two hours. The exam process will be completed on October 6.

Varsity’s examination controller Rajeev Kumar said, “The exams for final year students will be conducted from September 11 to October 6. The sessional exam timetable is determined in such a way that it does not overlap with any competitive exam.”

“No theoretical questions will be asked. Students will have to answer multiple choice type questions on an OMR sheet. The duration of the exam will be 2 hours. We are in the process of finalizing the exam centers. The details will be made available on the varsity website very soon. Social distancing norms will be strictly followed while conducting the exam.”

According to the varsity records, maximum 43,495 students will be eligible to appear for BSc final year exam, 30,969 for BA final year, 10,812 for BCom, 8,684 for MA, 2,085 for MSc, 2,689 of MCom and 308 for Bcom (vocational).

CAG to audit TTD’s accounts from next yr

CAG to audit TTD’s accounts from next yr

TNN | Sep 4, 2020, 04.30 AM IST

Vijayawada: In a big step towards ensuring transparency in its functioning, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) trust board on Thursday decided to entrust the annual audit of the temple body’s accounts to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) from 2020-21.

TTD trust board chairman YV Subba Reddy said in a release that the move will ensure more transparency in auditing while upholding the belief of millions of devotees and donors of Lord Venkateswara. Rajya Sabha MP Subramanyam Swamy had earlier moved the court, seeking timely external audit of the temple body’s accounts.

“By taking into consideration the spirit of criticism in the matter, we have resolved to get the audit done by the CAG. We feel there is a need to instill full faith of pilgrims and donors in the accounting and audit systems of TTD,” Subba Reddy said.

Till now, the temple’s annual audit was being done by the state audit department. The CAG may take over the audit of TTD from 2020-21 as the audit for 2014-15 to 2019-20 has already been completed by the state audit department. Government may also be asked to request the CAG to also undertake a special audit of the previous years and furnish its report within six months. The trust board’s resolution shall be intimated to high court by filing an appropriate affidavit in the matter, Subba Reddy added.