Rain in city likely for next few days

Rain in city likely for next few days

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 04.01.2021

The city is likely to experience fairly moderate rain or thunder showers for the next few days because of the impact of heavy rain that is likely to hit Puducherry, Cuddalore and further south.

A seven-day forecast shows that the city will experience rain at night or during the day till January 7. There will be light rain till Tuesday and moderate rain on Wednesday and Thursday. An IMD forecast for the next 48hours said: “The sky condition is likely to be generally cloudy. Light to moderate rain is likely to occur in some areas.”

However, there is a heavy rainfall warning for Tuesday which says that “heavy rain is likely at isolated places over Tiruvarur, Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Mayiladuthurai and Cuddalore areas.” This is expected to have an impact on the weather in Chennai, said a met department official.

The city and its suburbs received good rain on Saturday night. Kelambakkam, on OMR, recorded 3cm; Mamallapuram 2cm; Tambaram, Chengalpet, Sholingnallur, Madurantakam, Sriperumbudur, Chennai airport and Alandur received 1cm.

A seven-day forecast shows that the city will experience rain at night or during the day till January 7. There will be light rain till Tuesday and moderate rain on Wednesday and Thursday

SRMC Convocation 2021

 

Online registration for SRM’s BTech entrance exam begins

Online registration for SRM’s BTech entrance exam begins

Chennai:04.01.2021

SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST) has launched online registration for its BTech entrance exam SRMJEEE (SRM Joint Engineering Entrance Examination) 2021.

The entrance exam is likely to be held in the second week of April in 127 cities across the country and five countries in the middle-east including Dubai, Doha and Kuwait.

Candidates who qualify in the exam can get admissions in all campuses of SRMIST. The deemed university said it will announce the entrance exam and joint counselling dates as per the instructions and notifications AICTE and state governments.

“Candidates applying for the entrance exam should have secured a minimum aggregate of 50% marks in maths, physics, chemistry/ biology for all campuses except Andhra Pradesh,” SRMIST said. TNN

COVID CONCERNS

TNPSC Group I examination: 49% candidates absent

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:  04.01.2021

The group I preliminary exam of the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission was held on Sunday, with 49% of the candidates absent. Of the 2,56,954 who applied, 1,31,264 appeared and 1,25,690 were absent, mainly due to the travel restrictions triggered by Covid-19. Usually, around 30% candidates are absent for the preliminary exam.

Answering all questions and affixing the thumb impression on the OMR answer sheets, to prevent malpractices, were among the mandatory rules for students.

Candidates said more weightage was given to Tamil Nadu-related questions and the difficulty level was high.

“As per the new measures, candidates need to shade answer to all questions. If they don’t know the answer, they have to shade the answer not known option. The commission also allotted additional time to write each of the five options shaded by them for all questions,” said Sucharithan, who appeared for the exam.

Some said introduction of the additional option just a few days before the exam had led to a few mistakes, while others said more weightage was given to the history of social reform movements and leaders in the state. “The exam is conducted only for 66 vacancies. Many candidates have gone back to their native places and due to travel constraints, they have skipped the exam,” a woman said.

The TNPSC also introduced Thirukkural and development administration as new topics while revising the syllabus.

“Students found it difficult to answer the development administration questions. Question paper pattern is moving from factual questions to conceptbased questions which is good,” said Sathyashree Boominathan, managing director of King Makers IAS Academy.

On the huge absentees, he said, “Usually, the gap between the number of candidates applied and appeared is 30%. Covid-19 pandemic and long-delay have affected the preparation and confidence of candidates leading to more absentees.”

While the number of applicants fell from the usual 5 lakh to 2.5 lakh, some said the lack of an option to change exam centre could have led to some absentees. “Many might have skipped exam due to Covid-19. The long delay and the pandemic might have affected confidence,” said U Sivabalan, academic head, TNPSC exams, Shankar IAS Academy.

Fake marksheet gang was active for 22 yrs

Fake marksheet gang was active for 22 yrs

Mastermind A Retd Jal Nigam Employee: STF

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Lucknow:  03.01.2021

The gang running a degree and marksheet racket unearthed by Special Task Force from Alambagh on Friday was active for the past 22 years and had given fake marksheets and degrees to hundreds of people for jobs and admissions, said officials on Saturday.

As many as 342 marksheets and 115 degrees of Lucknow University, eight marksheets of Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya, 34 marksheets of MA and 50 blank marksheets of Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University, were seized along with eight blank marksheets of Government Polytechnic in Lucknow, and marksheets of various schools and institutes.

The officials said the gang charged price for marksheets as per the need of the seeker.

Dy SP, STF, Avnishwar Chandra Srivastava, who is conducting the probe, said the interrogation of the three arrested accused, identified as Sunil Kumar Sharma, Lallan Kumar and Vishwajeet Kumar, has revealed that the gang was active since 1998.

“Sunil Sharma, the gang’s mastermind is a retired government employee from Jal Nigam, Lallan worked as a private school teacher, and Vishwajeet was the printer,” said the officer.

“The trio used to charge money as per the requirement. If one needed marksheet for a job then they charged from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh depending upon the post, while for admissions they charged Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000, depending upon the course,” he said. Marsksheets with masters in science were the most sought ones, the officer said.

“We are tracing some people who came in their contact and took fake marksheets,” the DySP said.

They used to target candidates studying in coaching institutes of tier-two cities and those approaching offices of job consultants.

They started the fraud in 1998 when there was huge demand for fake certificates, their business dipped when digitization started in 2014, he added.

Officials said the gang charged price for marksheets as per the need of the seeker

Parents meet edu min, seek reopening of schools

Parents meet edu min, seek reopening of schools

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hyderabad:  03.01.2020

Members of the Telangana Parents Association met the state education minister Sabitha Indra Reddy on Saturday and appealed her to reopen schools and other educational institutions by Sankranthi i.e. mid-January.

The TPA members submitted a representation to the minister citing various issues faced by the parents during the lockdown and virtual learning.

The TPA members claimed that the education minister responded positively and said that the government will announce its plans reagrding the same, shortly.

Salary hike: ₹8,000 cr burden on exchequer

Salary hike: ₹8,000 cr burden on exchequer

Revision Done After Gap Of Over Two Yrs

Roushan.Ali@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad:  03.01.2021

Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s decision to hike the salaries of over 9.36 lakh employeesislikely to put an additional burden of Rs 8,000 crore per annum on the state exchequer if the government agrees to give over 40% fitment to the employees.

It cost Rs 6,500 crore per annum to the government in 2015 when 43% fitment was extended to nearly five lakh employees, including pensioners. Now, the CM has announced salary hike for 9.36 lakh government, contract, outsourcing and all category of employees, including pensioners.

On the other hand, the governmentislikely tosaveRs2,000 crore to Rs 3,000 crore per annum by increasing the retirement age of employees asitwould nothave to pay gratuity and other retirementbenefits.

Though a lot would depend upon how much fitment the pay revision commission (PRC) wouldsuggest,the reportofwhichis likely to be submitted in a day or two, the employees are expecting the CM to be magnanimous this time too as the revision is being done after a gap of two-and-a-halfyears. The PRC had recommended 29% fitment in 2015 but the CM gave 43% to the employees as a reward for their role in the Telangana statehood agitation.

As per tradition, the CM holds a meeting with leaders of various employees’ unions wherein they put forward their demands including the percentage of fitment. Union leaders said they were expecting the CM to call them for a meeting in a dayor two. They would also be meeting the chief secretary-led committeein thefirstweekof January, as directedby thechief minister.

Before the pandemic, the joint action committee (JAC) of all categories of employees had demanded 63%fitmentin representations submitted to the PRC and also the CS. However, the employees are unlikely to insist for 63% fitment keeping in view of the financial position of thestate.

Telangana non-gazetted officers’ association president and JAC leader M Rajender told TOI that they understand the financialcondition of thestatebutwould definitely like to place before the government what they deserve keeping in viewof theincreasein prices of all essential commoditiesin thelasttwo-and-a-half-years.