In CBI Vyapam chargesheet, how med seats were ‘illegally allocated’ from state quota

In CBI Vyapam chargesheet, how med seats were ‘illegally allocated’ from state quota

P.Naveen@timesgroup.com

Bhopal:  09.02.2021 

A recent CBI chargesheet in a Vyapam scam case has mentioned in detail how a section of officers at the directorate of medical education (DME) allegedly overlooked norms in connivance with directors of some medical colleges to 'illegally' allot seats to candidates.

The chargesheet, running into over 4,000 pages and naming 60 people, relates to alleged rigging of Pre-Medical Test (PMT) conducted by Vyapam in 2011. It names Dr S C Tiwari and Dr N M Srivastava as the director, medical education, and joint director, medical education, in 2011. Tiwari was then chairman of the counselling committee of MP PMT-2011 and Shrivastava its coordinator.

Investigation has revealed that on November 11, 2011, Srivastava wrote to registrars of Barkatullah University-Bhopal, Devi Ahilya Bai University-Indore, Rani Durgavati University- Jabalpur and Jiwaji University-Gwalior that DME had completed PMT-2011 counselling to fill 50% state quota seats in private medical and dental colleges in compliance with a Supreme Court order, says the probe agency.

The universities were told to get the list of admitted candidates verified from DME before issuing the registration letter. However, in a letter dated July 13, 2012, to the Barkatullah University Registrar, Srivastava had verified and forwarded the list of candidates admitted under state quota by Chirayu Medical College for that session.

Srivastava verified the names of 47 state quota candidates, who did not attend the counselling or were not issued any allotment letters by the committee, says the CBI chargesheet, alleging that these were admitted illegally by the college on its own on September 30, 2011, against vacant state quota seats. The chargesheet claims forwarding of the list as proof of Srivastava’s “ulterior motive”.

On Tiwari, the chargesheet says that it was his responsibility, as chairman of the counselling committee, to conduct the counseling within deadline and according to procedure, but he couldn’t get it done in time.

“He also failed to implement rules and procedures, which gave the opportunity to ineligible candidates who appeared in the counseling to get seats and vacate them in connivance with college authorities,” the chargesheet alleges.

Tiwari did not take any action against Chirayu Medical College on the ‘illegal admissions’, the agency has said. The chargesheet alleges that Tiwari and Shrivastava were present during counselling for left-out seats conducted on September 28, 2011, when Girish Kanitkar, a representative of Chirayu Medical College, “falsely reported only one vacant seat to the counselling committee”.

“If the college declared only one vacant seat on 28/29 September, 2011, before the counselling committee, how did the college administration admit 47 candidates against vacant MPPMT seats on September 30, 2011? But they (Tiwari and Shrivastava) did not raise any question or take any action against the college,” the chargesheet says.

The central agency also alleges negligence by Dr G P Naik and Dr Asha Srivastava, who headed the scrutiny committees for the three rounds of PMT counselling, and Dr Mohan Shinde and Dr Rinni Malik, who headed separate allotment committees. CBI recommends action against them for their ‘lapses’.

The chargesheet accuses the Barkatullah University registrar of negligence in issuing registration/enrolment numbers to 39 ineligible candidates who were not allotted seats in PMT counselling but were allegedly ‘illegally admitted’ by Chirayu on the last day, September 30, 2011. It recommends action against the registrar as well. The agency has also called for action against the college for “illegal admission” of eight DMAT candidates on PMT/state quota seats and six non-DMAT candidates on vacant DMAT seats.

Top officials queue up for jab, say all’s well

SHOT OF HOPE

Top officials queue up for jab, say all’s well

Leading By Example: Bureaucrats, Cops Turn Up For Vaccine Across MP

Amarjeet.Singh1@timesgroup.com

Bhopal:09.02.2021 

A majority of senior district officials, including collectors, commissioners and superintendents of police, got vaccinated on Monday as vaccination of frontline workers started in a bid to motivate other staffers.

In state capital, Bhopal, vaccination of the frontline workers started with divisional commissioner Kavindra Kiyawat and district collector Avinash Lavania getting vaccinated.

Health minister Prabhuram Chowdhary also visited the vaccination booth at the district collectorate.

Likewise, in Jabalpur, it was district collector Karamveer Sharma who started the vaccination drive by getting vaccinated first. Sources said different officials have decided different dates for vaccination — one day, divisional commissioner will get vaccinated, and then the district SP will get vaccinated.

In Rewa district, it were the divisional commissioner, IG police and Rewa district collector who got themselves vaccinated first. In Gwalior too, district officials started the vaccination drive. However, the district collector and other senior officials will get vaccinated on February 10. Despite these attempts, the overall vaccination turnout was low throughout the day as only 38 per cent vaccination turnout was reported in the state.

SC asks govt to reduce medical cut-off marks

SC asks govt to reduce medical cut-off marks

‘Low Qualifying Mark Doesn’t Affect Standard’

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:09.02.2021 

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that reducing the cut-off marks for admissions to courses does not lower the standards of education and overruled the Union government by directing lowering of qualifying marks by 10 percentile points to help private colleges fill nearly 7,000 BDS seats for the academic year 2020-21 by February 18.

A bench of Justices L N Rao and Krishna Murari accepted senior advocate Maninder Singh’s argument that the government could not have refused to accept Dental Council of India’s recommendations for lowering the qualifying marks by 20 percentile points on the ground that lowering the cut-off mark could have adverse impact on education standards. Singh had said the Union government had earlier accepted similar recommendations for lowering cut-off for super speciality courses in medical sciences.

Writing the judgment, Justice Rao said, “If reducing minimum marks amounts to lowering the standards, the Union government would not do so for super speciality courses. We are in agreement with Singh, counsel for the petitioners, that lowering the minimum marks and reducing the percentile for admission to the first-year BDS course would not amount to lowering the standards of education.” It ordered admissions to BDS courses strictly on merit and said the process of admission be completed by February 18.

The bench also found force in additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati’s argument that fees charged by private dental colleges were a deterrent in filling up seats. “Only 265 out of 7,000 vacant seats are in government colleges. All the other unfilled seats are in private dental colleges. The managements of private dental colleges shall consider reducing the fee charged by them to encourage students to join the colleges,” the SC said.

“We direct that the vacant seats in first year BDS course for the year 2020-2021 shall be filled up from candidates who have participated in NEET (UG) for the year 2020-2021 after lowering the percentile mark by 10 percentile points,” it added.

This means general category candidates with 40 percentile points, SC/ST/OBCs with 30 percentile points and physically challenged candidates with 35 percentile points would be eligible for admission to BDS courses in government and private colleges.

Singh had relied on proceedings relating to lowering of minimum marks for super speciality courses for the year 2019-2020 and for admission in Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH) - UG courses for the year 2020-2021. He argued that 7,000 seats in BDS courses were vacant and the available infrastructure would be wasted.

Bhati submitted that 7.71 lakh candidates were found to be eligible for filling up 82,000 MBBS and 28,000 BDS seats, thus for each vacant seat seven candidates were available. She said the Centre decided against lowering the qualifying marks as there were sufficient dentists in India. “Lack of keenness of students to join BDS, especially in private colleges which charge exorbitant fees, as they are interested in MBBS courses, is yet another ground,” she said.

The apex court asked the Centre to lower the cutoff by 10 percentile points to help private colleges fill nearly 7,000

Court quashes KSLU’s even semester exams

Court quashes KSLU’s even semester exams

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:09.02.2021 

The high court on Monday asked the Karnataka State Law University to announce a fresh timetable for students of the first four years of the course, scheduling examinations of odd semesters only.

As far as even semester exams are concerned, students have to be assessed on the basis of their internal assessments to the extent of 50% and the remaining considering their performance in the previous semester (if available). Markscards should also be issued on the same terms vis-avis even semesters, the court said, quashing the November 1, 2020 press release issued by the Bar Council of India and subsequent circular dated November 9, 2020 by KSLU.

The consequential timetable issued by KSLU, along with notifications dated January 13 and 29, 2021, have also been quashed.

Disposing of the petitions filed by law students, Justice R Devdas noted the decisions taken by BCI and KSLU are not backed by expert opinion, unlike the guidelines issued by UGC, keeping in mind the situation created by the pandemic.

The petitioners’ main grievance was with regard to conduct of exams through offline physical mode for intermediate semester students. As per BCI guidelines on November 1, 2020, both online and offline exam options should have been given, they said, adding that KSLU was forcing students to undergo multiple exams in a year, which is beyond their capacity and legitimate expectations.

The university must release a fresh timetable for odd semesters of the first four years

PhD students denied fellowship money since 2019, stage protest

PhD students denied fellowship money since 2019, stage protest

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:09.02.2021

Around 750 PhD students are yet to receive their monthly fellowship amount of Rs 10,000 since November 2019. Pushed to the wall, 100 PhD of them, mostly from poor backgrounds, protested at Maurya Circle on Monday asking the government to look into their cases.

According to the backward class welfare department, the money is not being paid following a cut in the budget owing to the pandemic. “Around 15 crore has been deducted. We are running 13 programmes with a budget of Rs 5 crore now. Ideally, we need Rs 20 crore to operate these programmes. The issue has been raised by the minister with the finance department. The problem will be sorted out soon,” said Vasant Kumar, commissioner, backward class welfare department.

Students from other backward classes quota are eligible for a monthly fellowship amount of Rs 10,000 from the backward classes welfare department. Implemented in 2015-16 with an initial Rs 5,000, the amount was increased to Rs 10,000 from academic year 2018-19, with the aim of supporting research.

“We need to enrol for our second and third years and have to pay university fee, w hich comes to around Rs 30,000. This is apart from the monthly mess bill. With no fellowship money coming, it’s difficult for us to sustain,” said a student from the University of Agricultural Sciences.

“We have an agricultural background and getting a PhD is a major achievement for us. We’re around 750 students in various state universities and the money means a lot to us,” said another student.

The fellowship is meant for students from families of income below Rs 4.5 lakh and Rs 3.5 lakh

27 nursing students test positive in Mys

27 nursing students test positive in Mys

09.02.2021 

Twenty-seven nursing students of a Mysuru college have tested positive for Covid-19. They had arrived from Kerala nearly a month ago to appear for their finalyear exam. Health authorities said that they had been isolated at hostels. All students are safe, an official said. This is the first such outbreak in an educational institution in the district.

Ahead of MCI check, 85 medical teachers transferred

60 FROM BJ MEDICAL COLLEGE

Ahead of MCI check, 85 medical teachers transferred

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:  09.02.2021 

Ahead of the Medical Council of India’s inspection of PG courses, the state government on Monday transferred 85 professors and associate professors. Of the 85, 60 medical teachers were from BJ Medical College.

The officials said the transfers were done to ensure that there was no reduction in postgraduate seats in the state.

The officials said this was the common practice of the state government. They said whenever any inspection looms, mass transfers are effected. Even during the inspection of undergraduate courses, the government authorizes mass transfers.

Once inspections are over, the government sends the teachers back to their original postings after a year. The officials said that six professors and assistant professors from pharmacology, radiology and TB departments were transferred to Bhavnagar Medical College.

The officials said that due to the changes in rules, a postgraduate professor once transferred cannot be moved again for a year.

The officials said that BJ Medical College has maximum seats and such largescale transfers can definitely affect the seats. With 60 professors being transferred, the number of seats in BJ Medical College can be impacted.

The officials said that the state has a severe shortage of medical staff in government colleges and so far it has been saving the number of seats in undergraduate and postgraduate courses with such transfers.

Sources said that those who had worked during Covid times had been transferred while those who had not have been kept at the same posts.