7.5% quota: TN to pay full edu cost of govt students

7.5% quota: TN to pay full edu cost of govt students

Chennai:21.09.2021

The Tamil Nadu government would bear the entire education cost — tuition fees, hostel fees and counselling fees — of all government school students joining professional courses under the 7.5% quota, chief minister M K Stalin said on Monday.

Issuing admission letters to 50 students under special reservation in Anna University, Stalin said around 12,000 students would join engineering, agriculture, veterinary science, fisheries and law courses. “This will lead their families and the places to development, besides benefiting the state. I am proud to issue these admission letters,” Stalin said. TNN

BIG HELP: CM M K Stalin said 12,000 students would join engineering & other courses

Special quota is a rural development scheme, says Stalin

Among the beneficiaries, G Viswanathan got admission in electronics and communication engineering, while Monish K got admission in computer science engineering — both in College of Engineering, Guindy. They had lost their fathers many years ago and their families were struggling to make ends meet.

Viswanathan of Government Higher Secondary School in Anakaputhur and the topper among government school students with an aggregate of 197.9 marks, said the government bearing his education cost would ensure that he completes his studies. His sister has been the family’s sole bread-winner after their father, a watchman, died nine years ago.

Monish, another student from the same school who works part-time to support his family, said the announcement has come as a “huge relief” to his family. He was raised by his mother after his father died in 2015. His mother works at Chennai airport’s tollgate for a monthly salary of ₹5,000. He scored 195.75 marks to get the eighth rank among government school students.

Stalin said 69% of students of government schools came from villages and the special reservation has become a virtual rural development scheme. He recalled it was the DMK government headed by M Karunanidhi that cancelled entrance exams for medical and engineering courses as it had been blocking the entry of rural students in professional courses.

“The government is conducting a legal battle against NEET. Government orders issued to ensure social justice are laying the foundation for an equitable society,” he said. Asking the departments of school education and higher education to lay the foundation for Tamil society’s allround development, he said the present government’s tenure should become a golden period for higher education, professional education and research.

MD aspirants challenge change in NEET-SS exam question pattern

MD aspirants challenge change in NEET-SS exam question pattern

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:21.09.2021

The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from the National Board of Examinations, National Medical Commission and the Centre within a week on a petition filed by doctors challenging the NMC’s arbitrary last-minute decision to change subject-wise distribution of marks in the question papers for the NEET-Super Speciality 2021 exam, the gateway for MD course admissions.

Appearing for the 41 postgraduate doctors, who are intending to appear for the NEET-SS examination scheduled for November 13/ 14, senior advocate Shyam Divan told a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and B V Nagarathna that the NMC without authority effected changes in the rules of the game after the play has commenced.

Divan said that the examination dates were announced on July 23 and the aspirants began their preparations suiting to the pattern of the question papers and subject-wise distribution of marks as was announced in 2018 and continued for the years 2019 and 2020.

By this uncalled for change in pattern of questions, announced on August 31, the National Medical Commission has changed the rules of the game after the play has begun, he said.

The bench issued notices to NBE, NMC and Centre and sought their responses within a week. The petitioner doctors through advocate Javedur Rehman have challenged the abrupt last-minute changes made to the exam pattern/scheme, when the NEET-SS 2021 exams were just two months away. National Medical Commission does not have any power to change the pattern of questions and mark allocations, Rehman said.

Rehman said the aspirants have been preparing in terms of the pattern that has been in place for the last three years, when the sudden change in pattern/ scheme was made public.

Full report on www.toi.in

Reopening of schools entirely for state govts to decide, says SC

Reopening of schools entirely for state govts to decide, says SC

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:21.09.2021

Advising a student petitioner to concentrate on his studies, the Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain his PIL seeking immediate physical reopening of schools and said it would not enter into decision-making on resumption of offline academic activities, which fell exclusively within the domain of the executive.

Asking senior advocate Ravi P Mehrotra to tell his young client, class XII student Amar Prem Prakash, to focus on his studies, a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and B V Nagarathna said it is imperious on the part of a student in Delhi to demand immediate decision by governments to reopen physical schools in a time bound manner when the entire country does not know whether or not the third wave of the Covid pandemic is on the anvil or not.

“It is a misplaced PIL if not a publicity-seeking petition. The distribution of the severity of the Covid pandemic is not the same in all states. Does the situation in Kerala match with that of West Bengal or for that matter Delhi? How the Supreme Court can issue an omnibus order directing reopening of schools?” it asked. “As we read in newspapers and various other sources, the third wave may not be as severe as the second. The vaccination is going on apace. But, we cannot equate the pandemic situation in Kerala with that of Karnataka or West Bengal or for that matter Delhi. Some states, depending on the waning of the pandemic, are gradually reopening the schools. Let us leave the decision in this regard to the state governments. Even within a state, the pandemic situation may not be uniform. Some districts may have a high infection rate while in others it may be mild. What should be done about reopening of schools, must be left to the governments,” the bench said.

Full report on www.toi.in

Man poses as woman, lover kills him

Man poses as woman, lover kills him

Tuticorin:21.09.2021

A case of suspicious death has turned out to be a murder as the victim had deceived the accused by impersonating as a woman on Facebook,lured him into a homosexual relationship and threatened to share their intimate pictures with his family.

Police have identified the deceased as P Murugan, 28, of Mela Eral village in Tuticorin district. Murugan, who was a Class X dropout, worked with his father in their field. On September 15, his body was found in bushes in Melakaranthai village with an injury on his head. The Masarpatti police registered a case of suspicious death under Section 174 of the CrPC and sent the body for postmortem.

Police, who checked CCTV footages from Ettayapuram, saw another man accompanying Murugan on September 14. Going through his call details, police came to know that he frequently spoke to a man, identified as M Murugan, 24, of Dhamaal in Kancheepuram district. He worked in a car accessories manufacturing company. TNN

20 reasons and two routes to eliminate NEET, Rajan committee tells TN govt

20 reasons and two routes to eliminate NEET, Rajan committee tells TN govt

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:21.09.2021

The Justice AK Rajan Committee, which studied the impact of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) on the student community in Tamil Nadu, has listed 20 reasons for elimination of NEET.

It suggested the twinroute of legislative and legal procedures to achieve the purpose. The committee also made seven recommendations that included bringing all deemed universities under the purview of the state government.

The 165-page report, submitted to the government in July 2021, was released to the media on Monday. The contents of the report were first reported by TOI on July 15.

Among the 20 points for opposing NEET were arguments that NEET neglected Class XII marks and promoted private coaching, and that it denied opportunities to tribal, rural and oppressed students.

Also, the report said the percentage of rural students came down from 65.17% in 2016-17 in the pre-NEET year, to 49.91% in 2020-21. The number of Tamil medium students allotted the MBBS seats also came down from 14.88% in 2016-17 to a mere 1.99% in 2020-21.

Likewise, the percentage of state board students getting MBBS seats also plummeted from 65.66% in 2016-17 to 48.22% in 2017-18 while the percentage of CBSE students has increased from 0.39% to 24.91% in just one year after the introduction of NEET. The number of government school students getting MBBS admissions also decreased from 34 students to just three students after NEET and no student from government schools got admitted to government medical colleges in 2017-18.

The number of first-generation graduates getting the seats also came down from 24.9% to 13.6% after the introduction of NEET in Tamil Nadu. Students whose parents annual income is less than 2.5lakhs per annum also come down from 47.42% before NEET to 30.6% after NEET.

Before NEET, 87.5% current-year students entered medical colleges, but it got reduced to 28.5% in 2020-21 as 71.4% repeaters grabbed the medical seats. The report also said the students were shelling out Rs 1 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh per annum for coaching classes.

Justice Rajan Committee, therefore, asked the government to bring in a Bill to bin NEET and get the President's assent for the legislation. Reverting to Class XII marksbased admission to MBBS courses by adopting normalisation of scores to bring in equality among boards would be the solution, it said.

"This will ensure social justice and protect all vulnerable student communities from being discriminated against in admission to medical education programmes," the committee said in its report. It also advised the government to bring all deemed universities which are now directly under the UGC under the purview of the state government.

The committee, headed by Justice Rajan, had eight other members, including six government officials. It received more than 86,000 responses from the public. While more than 65,000 opposed NEET, 18,000 supported NEET and nearly 1,500 had no opinion.

The seven points that supported NEET included prevention of blocking of seats and the provision for Tamil Nadu students to enter union government-run colleges.

Man eats biryani, spits blood, dies; had TB, says kin

Man eats biryani, spits blood, dies; had TB, says kin

Shiva Kumar Pinna

Warangal:20.09.2021

A 23-year-old man, allegedly suffering from TB, died coughing blood a few minutes after having biryani for lunch at a hotel on Sunday in Narsampet Town in Warangal. The family did not register any complaint and police have not booked a case.

The man, B Prasad, a resident of Jhalli village in Chennaraopet mandal in the district, had come to the hotel with a friend. The incident was soon all over WhatsApp groups.

Narsampet ACP CHRV Phaninder said that Prasad’s uncle told them he was suffering from TB and the family did not want to register a complaint.

The body has been shifted to the Narsampet Government Hospital for autopsy.

HC asks petitioner to move govt for financial emergency in varsity

HC asks petitioner to move govt for financial emergency in varsity

Bhopal/Jabalpur:20.09.2021

A division bench of MP High Court asked the petitioner, who had filed a petition in the court for imposing financial emergency in the MP Medical University under section 50 of the MP Medical University Act, to present an application to that effect to the state government while directing the latter to take a decision on the application within two months.

President of Bharat Vikas Parishad, Alok Mishra, in his petition contended that there have been major financial irregularities in the medical university. Budget for the fiscal 2021-22 was not presented in the university at all and yet payment of lakhs of rupees are being made for different purposes by the university.

Section 26 (3) of the MP Medical University Act clearly provides that the finance committee of the university will present a budget before the executive council of the university for approval before the beginning of the new financial year. Mishra said that he had submitted an application before the state government urging for imposition of financial emergency in the university under section 50 of the Act but no action was taken by the state on his application. The bench comprising Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Satyendra Kumar Singh asked the petitioner to submit an application with the state government on the issue once again and directed that a decision in the matter should be taken by the state within two months. TNN