REGION DIGEST

REGION DIGEST

Upset over crop loss, mother, son commit suicide

A mother and son died by suicide after consuming poison at their house in Thiruvanaikovil near Srirangam in Trichy on Saturday. The reason behind their extreme step was said to be the losses suffered in banana cultivation. The deceased were identified as Chellammal, 65, and her son Ramesh Babu, 45, of Ganapathi Nagar in Thiruvanaikovil. Babu is survived by his wife Ilakkiya, 25, and a one-yearold daughter.

Convenor for BDU VC search panel named:

Former vice-chancellor of Alagappa University P Ramasamy has been appointed as convenor of the search committee to select the next vice-chancellor of Bharathidasan University (BDU). He was nominated by the state government to the threemember search committee after approval from governor Banwarilal Purohit. Ramasamy is presently the research director of Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, Bharat University.

Female tiger found dead, 2 cubs rescued:

Forest department field staff on Friday found the carcass of a female tiger at Seemarkuli Odai in the Singara forest range in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and rescued two male tiger cubs from the area.

Up to guv to take call on Perarivalan release, says CBI

Up to guv to take call on Perarivalan release, says CBI

‘Petitioner’s Claim Of Innocence Unacceptable’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  22.11.2020 

CBI has informed the Supreme Court that the decision on release of Perarivalan, life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, rests squarely with the Tamil Nadu government but refuted the convict's claim that he was unaware of the purpose for which the conspirators made him buy batteries used for detonating explosives by the human bomb to kill the former PM in 1991.

"The claim of the petitioner that he is innocent and did not have the knowledge about the conspiracy to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi is neither acceptable nor maintainable," CBI said in its affidavit before the Supreme Court.

Perarivalan's mother had annexed a statement of a former IPS officer, who had recorded the convict's confession and later stated that the accused was unaware of the conspiracy to use the batteries for detonation of the explosives to kill Rajiv Gandhi at an election rally in May, 1991. CBI said the former IPS officer's statement had been considered and rejected by the SC earlier.

The designated TADA court had awarded death penalty to all 26 accused after convicting them in 1998. The SC in 1999 had confirmed the death sentence of Nalini, Sriharan aka Murugan, Santhan aka Suthenthiraja and Arivu aka Perarivalan. However, taking into account the long pendency of their mercy pleas by the President, the SC had commuted their death sentences to life imprisonment in 2014.

In September 2018, the TN government recommended to the Governor to release the life convicts, including Perarivalan, which is still pending consideration. "Relief prayed for by the petitioner Perarivalan is an issue between him and the office of the Governor of TN," CBI told the SC. "It is for the Governor of TN to take a call on the issue whether remission is to be granted," the agency said.

On the work of Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA), set up on the recommendations of the Jain Commission of Inquiry to probe the larger conspiracy behind the assassination of the former PM and trace and track the absconding accused, CBI said, "The MDMA is conducting further investigations and progress report is submitted to the designated court at Chennai. Further investigations spread over different countries and the status of the same have already been submitted to the designated court." "Perarivalan is not the subject matter of further investigation conducted by MDMA," CBI admitted.

Medical counselling for open category begins on Monday with fewer seats

Medical counselling for open category begins on Monday with fewer seats

Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

Chennai: 22.11.2020 

Fifty eight medical seats and two dental seats were taken during the single window counselling for special category students – people with disability, eminent sportspersons and wards of ex-servicemen – on Saturday at the Nehru outdoor stadium.

The selection committee had called 70 candidates from the three groups for counselling, which began at 9am. Among the 64students who attended, 58 of them were allotted seats in government medical colleges. Two students were given seats in state-run dental colleges. Four others were waitlisted.

On Monday, after nearly four days of special counselling, seat allotment will begin for open category students. The state will roll out 2,747 seats with 864 seats in open quota in government colleges.

But seats will be fewer in self-financing colleges. While Muthukumaran Medical College did not make it to the list, additional seats in PSG Medical college were not reflected in the seat matrix. The Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical College had added them to the chart on November 6, but the college has not got the mandatory essentiality certificate from the state government for the additional seats, officials said. “We will be able to admit students after clearance from the state,” said selection committee secretary Dr G Selvarajan.

Among the 14 other self-financing categories there are 1,061 seats. This includes new colleges, Panimalar Medical Collegewith69 and Indira Medical College with 90 seats.

The committee has, however, retained Tagore Medical College and Trichy SRM Medical College, though MGR University has said permission for renewal is pending from the National Medical Council. “The college has not got the renewal because of the pandemic. There will be no problem if we admit students. If they ask us for details during the counselling, we will help them,” Dr Selvarajan said. Admission to Christian Medical College will be treated as a separate category.

Among the self-financing colleges there will be 329 seats for the open category. While 281 seats will be reserved for BC, 37 for BCM, 212 for MBC, 160 for SC, 31 for SCA and 11 for ST.

Women, kids can now travel by suburban trains

NEWS DIGEST

22.11.2020

Women, kids can now travel by suburban trains

Women commuters and children aged up to 12 years accompanying them will be allowed to travel on suburban trains during non-peak hours and the entire day on Sundays starting November 23. The non-peak hours will be till 7am, 10am to 4.30pm, and 7.30 pm to the closing time of the services. Southern Railway has scaled up number of suburban services and is operating 244 trains a day, around 40% of the pre-Covid-19 level. In addition to railway employees, staff working in essential services in the government and private sector including women are allowed.

TNFDC gets best marine govt body award:The Tamil Nadu Fisheries Development Corporation (TNFDC) Ltd received the award of the best marine government organisation during the world fisheries day on Saturday in New Delhi. Based on the performance of the corporation during the past years, TNFDC submitted proposals under the category of the “Best Performing Marine Quasi-Government Corporation in Fisheries Sector” to the department of fisheries through National Fisheries Development Board, Hyderabad. The award carries a financial incentive of ₹5lakh.

Southern Railway revises train timing: Railway has revised the timing of the following trains from November 30. Chennai Egmore - Trichy daily special train (06795) will leave at 8 am and Trichy-Chennai Egmore daily special train (06796) will leave at 10am from November 30. Chennai Central–Hazrat Nizamuddin bi-weekly Duronto special (02269) will leave at 6.40am from Movember 30. Hazrat Nizamuddin-MGR Chennai Central bi-weekly Duronto special (02270) will leave at 3.55pm from December 1. MGR Chennai Central–New Delhi superfast daily special train (02615) will leave at 6.50pm from November 30. New Delhi- MGR Chennai Central superfast daily special train (02616) will leave at 4.10pm from November 30.

Passengers from cities with high Covid-19 cases go unmonitored

Passengers from cities with high Covid-19 cases go unmonitored

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:  22.11.2020

Covid-19 cases may be surging in Delhi, but close to 3,000 people who arrive by flights and trains daily go almost unmonitored as checks have been relaxed following unlocking of restrictions. Temperature check is done at the airport but follow-up tracking is not done while at railway stations arriving passengers are not checked.

Delhi reported around 6,000cases in a single day. Chennai receives around 12 flights and two trains every day from the national capital.

An airport official said that a temperature check of arriving domestic passengers is being done but then the vigil has gone down because of the unlock mode and passengers are allowed to arrive and depart without much of a restriction as part of encouraging travel. However, the temperature check cannot be considered as foolproof as it will not be able to screen people who do not show symptoms. Two people — one from Delhi and another from UP — tested positive on Friday and one passenger from Karnataka tested positive after they showed symptoms on arrival on Saturday.

"The sudden increase in cases in Delhi is baffling. The cases should have subsided by now but it is shooting up. Airline staff are taking precautions as patronage of flights has increased. Delhi-Chennai route is one of the most popular routes," said an airline official.

The Maharashtra government is considering limiting the number of flights from Delhi. But the Airports Authority of India (AAI) or the airlines have not got any such advice from the Tamil Nadu government.

Better screening and testing of domestic passengers at the airport and at the railway station is a huge challenge as the number of passengers has increased.

Swab samples are being taken from international passengers but not from domestic passengers because there was a concern of creating congestion inside the arrival terminal. A railway official said that all passengers who reach the stations to board the trains are screened for temperature or flu-like symptoms.

However, former director of public health Dr K Kolandaswamy said, "We have crossed the screening stage. All those measures were needed in the early stage to prevent entry of the infection. But now herd immunity is increasing. When there is 40% herd immunity the infection starts to reduce."

Cancelled arrears as students were in distress: Govt to HC

Cancelled arrears as students were in distress: Govt to HC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:  22.11.2020 

Justifying its stand in cancelling arrear exams in view of the pandemic, the Tamil Nadu government has informed the Madras high court that the decision was made only to alleviate distress faced by the student community due to Covid-19.

It was done to skilfully navigate the course to ensure safety and wellbeing of the students, the state department of higher education said in its affidavit.

Denying the argument that such an order would amount to discrimination among students, the department said, “The decision would not demoralise meritorious students as only moderated minimum pass mark is awarded to arrear students.”

The submissions were made by M Ilango Henry Dass, joint secretary of the department, in response to a batch of pleas moved by former Anna University vice-chancellor E Balaguruswamy and others challenging the cancellation.

“As this situation was unprecedented, students had left their belongings, textbooks, notebooks and laptops in their hostel. Therefore, they had no access to their study material,” the department said. The inaccessibility to college was further compounded when the campuses were used to provide relief material to guest workers and later as Covid quarantine centres, the joint secretary said.

He added that as per the guidelines of the UGC, the state constituted a committee to work out the modalities and adopt the UGC guidelines. The decision to cancel the exams were taken only based on the recommendation of the committee.

Asserting that the GO was not in violation of UGC guidelines, the department said, “UGC guidelines specifically stated that the guidelines are advisory in nature and each university may chart out its own plan of action taking into consideration the issues pertaining to the pandemic, as its degree of impact varies from region to region.” Therefore, the TN government consulted state universities since conducting exams and evaluation of students is in the exclusive domain of the university concerned and the GO was issued, the department said.

“The state government will not lower the education standard of the students and the universities. In the absence of any specific guidelines about arrear papers, the state extended the exemption granted to regular students to arrear students as well to ensure no discrimination,” the department said.

State higher education department further added that the decision wouldn’t demoralise meritorious students as those who had pending arrears were given mere pass marks

Meritorious miss out while some benefit due to quota: HC

Meritorious miss out while some benefit due to quota: HC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:  22.11.2020 

Knowledgeable and deserving students are not able to avail themselves of opportunity in education while students who could not make it on merit but belong to a reserved category enjoy the opportunities, the Madras high court has said.

Noting that ‘reservation in higher education has created differences between different sections of the society’, Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana said: “Due to this (reservation), many students are unable to chase their dreams and succeed. No doubt it is true that the depressed and oppressed people should be given an opportunity for upliftment, without any compromise in quality in higher education.”

The judge made the observations while disposing of a plea moved by R S Poorvi, an MBBS graduate who had applied for an EWS certificate to secure a PG medical seat under the 10% EWS quota. Egmore tahsildar rejected the application on grounds that the petitioner’s annual family income was more than ₹8 lakh, the ceiling to qualify for the quota. The petitioner has moved the present plea challenging the rejection.

The judge accepted the petitioner’s explanation that her father did not have any source of income and that the tahsildar erred in assuming her father’s income to be ₹1.5 lakh.

Acceding to the explanation and ordering issuance of EWS certificate to her, the judge said, “Many people are from the forward community but financially backward, their due place should not be denied on account of reservation, which is the object of introducing EWS reservations.”

People such as the petitioner, who have scored well in exams through hard work, are given a feeling that they are not given the same treatment and criteria of selection though they belong to the economically weaker section, the court said. Allowing her plea, the court said, “The petitioner, who is otherwise competent, is in a financially disadvantageous position. The policy of the government is to give a push to such people, who hail from the disadvantaged group. That is the reason why it is made clear that the reservation not only includes the backward class, but also the financially backward people.”

Though the petitioner belongs to a forward community, as she is economically backward even as per the policy of the government, she has to be given the certificate of economically weaker section to enable her to pursue higher education, the judge added. The court then set aside the rejection order of the tahsildar and directed issuance of the certificate to the petitioner.

Due to this (reservation), many students are unable to chase their dreams and succeed. No doubt it is true that the depressed and oppressed people should be given an opportunity for upliftment, without any compromise in quality in higher education

MADRAS HC