Order telling Loyola to pay ₹64L stayed

Order telling Loyola to pay ₹64L stayed

Chennai:22.01.2021

A Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women order directing Loyola College to pay ₹64.3 lakh as compensation to a woman employee who alleged sexual harassment and illegal termination from service, has been stayed by the Madras high court.

Justice Abdul Quddhose passed the interim order on a plea moved by the college.

The issue pertains to a complaint of abuse and harassment made against Father Xavier Alphonse SJ, director of the alumni association of the college, by the victim who worked as an administrator. According to her, despite making several complaints to the management against Alphonse no action was taken against him but she was terminated from service arbitrarily. In 2016, she moved a petition in the high court challenging her termination. The commission conducted an inquiry and on December 22 passed an order directing thecollegeto pay her wages of ₹24.30 lakh, damages for mental agony and sexual harassment ₹25 lakh and compensation for filing a false complaint against her ₹15 lakh. TNN

Centre to HC: Med quota for govt students will affect merit

Centre to HC: Med quota for govt students will affect merit

Sureshkumar.K@timesgroup.com

Chennai:22.01.2021

Setting the stage for a fresh round of political slugfest, the BJP government at the Centre has opposed exclusive reservation for government school students in MBBS/BDS admissions under NEET.

It will not “be desirable,” said the Union home ministry when a related case came up before the Madras high court for hearing. “Any artificial, horizontal reservation is likely to create abnormal incentives/disincentives affecting pre-medical education…” it said.

Noting that NEET provided uniform national standards on the principle of one nation one merit list, the Centre said the proposal of the Puducherry administration to provide quota in medical courses for government school students diluted the merit principle. Such demands would undo merit-based admission reform, the Centre said.

The Centre filed the counter in response to a plea moved by a student seeking a direction to the Union government to approve 10% horizontal reservation for students from government schools in Puducherry for admissions to medical courses.

Counsel for petitioner senior advocate P Wilson, who took strong exception to it, said the central government was belittling the 7.5% reservation policy adopted by Tamil Nadu.

Acted promptly on reference from UT, Centre informs court

The Centre, denying that it was sitting on the reference from the Union territory, said the 7.5% reservation provided for government school students to medical admission in Tamil Nadu had been provided through state legislation and that no reference had been made to the Centre for information/ concurrence in the matter.

Asserting that such reservation may lead to similar or other demands from other states, it said After the Puducherry cabinet approved the exclusive reservation and forwarded the same to lieutenant-governor Kiran Bedi, she referred the matter to the central government on the ground that she differed with the view of the elected Puducherry government. Claiming that the Centre is sitting on the reference made on November 6, 2020 without taking a decision, the present plea was for a direction to the Centre to approve the reservation.

When the plea came up for hearing before Justice B Pugalendhi on Thursday, a limited reply was filed by the Centre through Ravi Ranjan, deputy commandant, union ministry of home affairs.

Denying that the reference is kept pending indefinitely, the reply said this ministry had acted promptly on the reference made by the LG and the CM of Puducherry and had sought inter-ministerial consultations for taking an informed decision.

“It is pertinent to mention here that the ministry of health vide an office memorandum dated December 10, 2020 while disagreeing with the proposal for granting horizontal reservation to students from government schools in the state quota seats in admission to medical courses conveyed that medical education is under concurrent list,” the reply said. Since the Centre sought further time to take a decision on the reference made, the judge adjourned the hearing to February 25.

The Centre said the 7.5% reservation provided for government school students to medical admission in Tamil Nadu had been provided through state legislation

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Murder case filed in college girl’s death

Murder case filed in college girl’s death

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Trichy:21,01,2021

Trichy district police have registered a murder case in connection with the unexplained death of a 19-year-old BPharm student at the women’s hostel of a private college at Samayapuram on Tuesday. A resident of Poiyur in Ariyalur district, the deceased R Rajeswari was a second year BPharm student at Srinivasan college of pharmaceutical sciences and was staying in the college hostel.

According to the first information report quoting the complaint of the girl’s father Ramaiyan, the principal informed him over phone that she was found lying on the ground behind the women’s hostel around 7.30 am on Tuesday. The principal told him that Rajeswari fainted and died later at the SRM hospital in Iringalur. However, the college administration told him that the girl must have fallen off the fourth floor of the hostel.

The FIR of Samayapuram police said Ramaiyan raised suspicions over the death and that she might have been murdered. He mentioned having found injuries on her jaw and right leg, bruises on her back and hand when he saw her body at the hospital in Irungalur on Tuesday. Inspector Anbazhagan of Samayapuram police told TOI on Wednesday that a case of murder has been booked based on the complaint. The girl had returned from home after Pongal holidays only on Monday night.

“She was one of the seven students staying in the hostel. Though the injury marks do not lead to any suspicion of murder, the viscera has been collected for examination to determine the cause of death. Since the father raised the suspicion of murder, we have registered a case of murder,” Inspector Anbalagan said. The postmortem was performed at the government hospital in Srirangam on Wednesday.

AIADMK won’t break up even if a thousand Stalins emerge: EPS

AIADMK won’t break up even if a thousand Stalins emerge: EPS

‘Will Continue As CM Even After Jan 27’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:21,01,2021

Asserting that there would be no split in the AIADMK as anticipated by rivals, chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday said he would continue to hold his official post even after January 27. The AIADMK would return to power for yet another term, the CM said, adding that it was the DMK which is on the verge of a split with former CM M Karunanidhi’s elder son M K Alagiri planning to float a party.

During his whistle-stop campaign in Kancheepuram, Palaniswami was at pains to dismiss speculation of possible split in the wake of the release of Jayalalithaa’s close aide V K Sasikala from a Bengaluru prison on January 27. DMSK president M K Stalin on Tuesday took a dig at the EPS government, wondering if the government would survive after January 27.

“Stalin’s ambition is to split the AIADMK and topple the government. He has no intention to do good for the people. Everywhere he goes, he asks if Edappadi Palaniswami will continue as CM. Of course, he will. That is because he enjoys the support of the people. The AIADMK cannot be touched even if a thousand Stalins emerge,” Palaniswami told supporters in Theradi, Kancheepuram district.

Palaniswami reminded the crowd of how he rose up the ranks from area secretary to minister through sheer hard work. “Stalin came up through short-cuts,” he said. “Stalin, you did not come to this position through hard work. But I did. I know how to steer the party and run the government,” the CM said, asking the DMK chief “to do good or else people may not even offer you a seat in the opposition benches”.

Recalling the “disrespectful behavior” of the DMK during the trust vote in 2017 and the alleged “physical assault” on Jayalalithaa in 1989 on the floor of the House, he said voters should think what it would be like if the DMK returned to power. Law and order would deteriorate, he said. “Udhayanidhi speaks disparagingly of women. Such people are eager to come to power. There is no history of those who slander and humiliate women winning,” the CM said and accused Stalin of making false and fancy promises during his Makkal Gram Sabha meetings.

SEA OF SUPPORTERS: Chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami at a rally in Kancheepuram on Wednesday