REGION DIGEST

REGION DIGEST

20.07.2021

MGM chairman: Bid for hotel in individual capacity

With reference to the news report ‘MGM buys Le Meridien, may turn it into hospital,’ published in the Times of India on Monday (July 19), M K Rajagopalan, chairman of MGM Healthcare, said the Resolution Plan was submitted in his individual capacity for the resolution of Appu Hotels Limited, which was approved by the Adjudicating Authority NCLT, Chennai. Rajagopalan said he followed the due process of law set out under the IBC and the Resolution Plan was approved by the Adjudicating Authority after being satisfied that the RP is in conformity with the provisions of the IBC and IBBI Regulations 2016. Further, no decision has been taken regarding converting the Chennai hotel into a hospital, he said.

State submits report on prisoner murder: The state on Monday submitted a status report on the progress of the CB-CID investigation and certain documents in a sealed cover before the Madras high court on a plea seeking probe into the murder of a prisoner inside the Palayamkottai Central Prison in Tirunelveli district. During the previous hearing, the court had directed the state to submit a status report about the progress of CB-CID investigation.

Min condemns OPS statement on GAIL: State industries minister Thangam Thennarasu has condemned AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam’s statement against alleged laying of pipelines through farm lands by GAIL in Krishnagiri district. Terming the statement as mischievous, Thennarasu said such pipelaying projects commenced in Tamil Nadu way back in 2018 itself when AIADMK was in power. But OPS was issuing a statement as if the project was a new one and that pipeline were being laid only now, Thennarasu said in a statement on Monday. Such projects are taken up after getting consent from farmers by providing them higher compensation, Thennarasu said.

College admissions to begin on July 26

College admissions to begin on July 26

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

20.07.2021

Class XII students can apply for arts and science and engineering admissions online from July 26, higher education minister K Ponmudi told reporters on Monday. Students can download their marksheets from July 22.

“The CBSE Class XII results are likely to be declared before July 31. We will give one month time — till August 24 — so that CBSE students too will have enough time to apply for all the courses,” Ponmudi said. The Directorate of Technical Education (Dote) will conduct the engineering counselling and individual colleges can admit students to arts and science courses, he added.

For the 143 government arts and science colleges in TN, the directorate of collegiate education may conduct centralised admission and prepare a rank list for each course. Individual colleges will fill up seats based on the rank list.

56 students test positive for Covid at Thrissur medical college hospital

56 students test positive for Covid at Thrissur medical college hospital

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Thrissur:20.07.2021

As many as 39 MBBS students of Thrissur medical college hospital and 17 students of the dental college have tested positive for Covid-19. Some PG students and house surgeons at the college have also tested positive.

Sajeevan, 43, manager of Indian Coffee House (ICH), located at the medical college campus, died while under treatment for Covid-19. There are reports that another six staffers at the ICH have also tested positive.

Dr Lola, principal of the college, said a mass testing drive was carried out soon after the reports of infection among students surfaced. Students who were not having exams had been asked to return home immediately. Among the three batches of the students who are having exams now, eight students have tested positive.

Dr Lola disclosed that all the students who had tested positive had taken both doses of vaccines. “There are no students in the final year batch who have tested positive so far,” she said, adding that among the freshers, only one student has tested positive.

Dr Raveendran, the liaison of the medical college hospital, said some patients undergoing treatment at the hospital have also tested positive in the post-operative phase. He said the entry of visitors to the medical colleges will be restricted in the wake of the rise in cases. “We are also planning a ward reorganization to lessen crowding,” he said.

TN Class XII: 77% score above 400 marks, 5% more than 551

TN Class XII: 77% score above 400 marks, 5% more than 551

All 8L Registered For Class XII Exams Declared Pass

Chennai:20.07.2021 

All 8,16,473 students who had registered for Class XII TN board exams were declared pass under the weightage system on Monday. School education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi released the results and within minutes the students got text messages on their registered mobile numbers with the mark details. Of the 8,16,973 students, 4,35,973 were girls and 3,80,500 were boys.

As many as 39,679 (4.86%) students got in the range of 551 marks to 600 marks. More than 77% of the students scored above 400 marks out of 600. “This year, 30,600 students scored between 551 marks and 600 marks in the science stream, compared to1,867 students the previous year. In commerce stream, 8,909 students scored in the same range, compared to 4,437 students last year. In the vocational group, 136 got above 551 marks,” he said.

The state government gave 50% weightage to Class X board exam marks, 20% to Class XI board marks and 30% to Class XII practical and internal assessment. As many as 33,557 students, who had arrears in Class XI, were also promoted due to Covid-19, Poyyamozhi said. He added that the optional exam for aggrieved students with the weightage system and exam for 39,000 private candidates will be held in September or October. TNN

FULL COVERAGE: P 2

No med admission sans OBC quota in AIQ: HC

MADRAS HC GIVES GOVT ONE WEEK

No med admission sans OBC quota in AIQ: HC

Centre Has No Choice, Rules Court

Sureshkumar.K@timesgroup.com

Chennai:20.07.2021 

This year’s medical admissions now hinge on the Union government implementing OBC reservation in All India Quota (AIQ) MBBS seats in state government colleges.

The Madras high court, slamming the Centre for its wilful disobedience of the July 27, 2020, judgment favouring BC reservation in AIQ, made it clear that admission into colleges in the state could now be only upon implementing such a quota. The court gave the Union government one week to indicate the mode of implementation of OBC quota in AIQ category.

“Not to implement the reservation is not a choice to the Union government,” the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said, concurring with the submissions of senior advocate P Wilson.

‘Centre bid to skip OBC quota derogates order of HC’

The judges said on Monday, “The Union government’s attempt to not implement the OBC reservation quota in respect of the All India Quota (AIQ) seats for admission to medical courses in the state in the academic year 2021-22 appears to be contumacious, in derogation of the order dated July 27, 2020, passed by this court and contrary to the representation made before the Supreme Court.”

The court made the observations on a contempt plea moved by DMK against the Centre for failing to implement the high court order dated July 27, 2020 to provide OBC reservations in UG and PG medical courses from the present academic year.

When the plea came up for hearing, senior advocate P Wilson contended that despite the clear direction of the court to implement the reservation from the present academic year, the Union has now taken a stand that it cannot implement the same pending disposal of the Saloni Kumari case before the SC.

The apex court has made it clear that the Saloni Kumari case has nothing to do with the present case. Despite such clarification, the Union is refusing to implement the orders of this court, Wilson said.

Recording the submissions, the bench said, “It now appears that the Centre seeks to change track and keep the implementation of the OBC reservation as per the 1993 State Act in suspension till the Saloni Kumari case is decided by the SC.”

Prima facie, it is completely unacceptable that despite the union representing before the Supreme Court that the OBC reservation would be implemented in respect of the AIQ seats in this state in terms of the order of July 27, 2020, passed by this court, the union would now not implement the reservation on the specious ruse that the Saloni Kumari matter had first to be decided by the Supreme Court, the bench said.

The court then adjourned the hearing to July 26 for the union to file its affidavit.

NMC planning to increase UG medical seats from 82,500 to 1 lakh

NMC planning to increase UG medical seats from 82,500 to 1 lakh

TNN | Jul 19, 2021, 04.00 AM IST

AHMEDABAD: The National Medical Commission (NMC) under the ministry of health and family welfare is working out a plan to increase the total number of undergraduate medical seats to one lakh by next year, said sources aware of the development. This was discussed at a recent meeting of NMC chaired by the Union health secretary.

“There are presently 82,500 MBBS seats across the country and the government plans to take it to one lakh in a year’s time,” said a government official close to the development.

There are close to 540 medical colleges in the country offering MBBS courses of which 49% are government run and remaining are self-financed and on public-private-partnership basis.

“The process for adding new medical colleges and increasing the MBBS seats is presently on,” said Dr Aruna Vanikar, president of the undergraduate medical education board, NMC. She did not divulge further information on the number of new applications for increase in number of seats.

Sources in Gujarat medical education fraternity said that Gujarat has 5,500-odd UG medical seats and is likely to get three more colleges. “There are deliberations to start three new medical colleges in the state which would add 450 seats,” said an official.

To add more seats, the government is exploring the option of running medical colleges in two shifts to increase the number of student intake. A similar plan is being worked out in different parts of the country too, sources added.

Sources also said it is being considered to start medical colleges affiliated with government hospitals. "There are at least six districts which have government hospitals and it is being considered to apply for medical colleges here," said a senior medical education official.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an address in February said that around 30,000 MBBS seats and 24,000 postgraduate seats in medicine have been added since the present Central government came to power in 2014. Modi, while delivering a convocation address of a medical college in Tamil Nadu by way of video conferencing said that the number of MBBS seats have gone up by 50% and postgraduate seats by 80% since 2014.

The Central government has taken various initiatives to transform the health sector and the National Medical Commission, the newly-formed regulatory body, was formed to bring in more transparency.

As part of the Centre’s plans to increase the number of MBBS seats at a time when the country has faced shortage of doctors during Covid-19, the government aims to increase the number of seats by 50 students in government medical colleges.

Currently inspection at medical colleges in the country is on and for undergraduate institutions there will be no physical inspection and the permission for increase in seats will be given based on the affidavit filed by the college, said sources.

The Central government as part of its broad plans aims to have one government run medical college in every district of the country. This will solve the infrastructure issue as most of the districts today house one big government run medical hospital.

While the government may have found ways to solve the infrastructure issues for raising the number of MBBS seats, staff crunch is an issue that they are still grappling with, according to a medical field expert.

Government run medical colleges in Gujarat are already reeling under pressure due to 15% staff crunch, the situation is worse in self-financed colleges where there is 30% staff crunch, he added.

IndiGo flights to Chennai, Bangalore from July 21

IndiGo flights to Chennai, Bangalore from July 21

Indore:  19.07.2021

People travelling to Chennai are all set to have a regular flight connectivity option with IndiGo airline all set to resume operation on the route from July 21 (Wednesday). The airline is also going to introduce one more flight on the busy Indore-Bangalore route from the same date.

As per schedule, the flight to Chennai will depart from Indore airport at 6.10pm. It will operate on three days a week — Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The flight to Bangalore will depart from Indore at 3.25pm. The flight will operate six days a week — Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sundays.

Airport director Aryama Sanyal said that IndiGo is also going to resume flights to Hyderabad, Delhi, Pune and Mumbai from July 20.

“The new flights are in addition to the flights being operated by the airline to and from Indore, including flights to Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi and Kolkata ,” Sanyal said, adding that two regular flights, including one to Ahmedabad and another to Raipur have also resumed their services. While the flight to Ahmedabad resumed on Saturday, the flight to Raipur restarted on Sunday. TNN