‘Can’t throw out candidates for smudging answer sheets’

‘Can’t throw out candidates for smudging answer sheets’

Highly Inequitable To Dismiss Efforts Over Scratches: HC

Ajay.Sura@timesgroup.com

Chandigarh:08.10.2021

The Punjab and Haryana high court has made it clear that it would be highly inequitable to throw the candidates for competitive examinations out at the threshold on account of having smudged a particular answer and the fact that there were vacancies as such. The HC has passed these orders while directing the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) to evaluate the OMR sheet of a woman candidate, who had appeared for the post of Physical Training Instructor (PTI) examination but her answer sheet, was not evaluated because one of the answers was smudged/scratched by her on the sheet.

Justice G S Sandhawalia passed these orders while allowing a petition filed by Suman Devi, who was a candidate for the post of PTI teacher in Haryana. She had appeared for the written examination held on August 23, 2020, but her answer sheet was not evaluated by the HSSC as one of the answers was found to be smudged and there was a cutting as such.

The petitioner has stated in her writ petition that she was an earlier appointee against the initial advertisement and got selected on April 30, 2010, and had worked in the department for around 10 years. However, her previous selection was set aside by the HC as well as the apex court. Thereafter, the entire selection process was to be redone while giving a chance to the earlier appointees.

The petitioner was a candidate under BCB category, for which 216 posts had been advertised and, required 45% marks to secure minimum qualifying prescribed marks in the written test. It was pointed out by the petitioner, who appeared in person, that on account of scratching and smudging of one of the questions on the OMR sheet, her question paper has not been evaluated.

The HC was informed that the commission has given certain benefits, as such, to candidates for certain questions and if the said benefit is given, the petitioner would make the grade of 90 marks. “Resultantly, the HSSC, is directed to ensure that if the petitioner has made the qualifying cut after deleting the benefit which is to be awarded against the smudged questions, result be declared and the same benefits be given,” the HC has ordered while allowing her plea.

The HC passed these orders while directing the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) to evaluate the OMR sheet of a woman candidate

DU refutes prof ’s claims that Kerala students are being given preference

DU refutes prof ’s claims that Kerala students are being given preference

Shinjini.Ghosh@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:08.10.2021

Following a row over comments on students from a particular state board being given preference by Delhi University during admissions, a statement was issued by the varsity on Thursday refuting the same.

DU registrar Vikas Gupta said over 60,000 students had applied to the university under the first cutoff list out of which over 46,000 were from CBSE. At the end of the last day of approvals from college principals, applications of over 31,000 students from CBSE and 2,365 of students from Kerala Board of Higher Secondary Education were accepted, he added.

There were 1,540 students from Board of School Education, Haryana and 1,429 from Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations.

The remarks by DU professor Rakesh Kumar Pandey on the “inexplicable rush” of students from Kerala had drawn flak from several quarters. Students’ Federation of India and National Students Union of India announced that they would hold demonstrations at DU’s Arts Faculty and Kirori Mal College, respectively, on Friday.

Meanwhile, Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) had staged a sit-in protest on Wednesday stating that the high cutoffs had led to students from “only few state boards” being admitted to the varsity.

In the statement, Gupta said, “Being a central university, University of Delhi equally and uniformly values the academic credentials of all candidates irrespective of their states and school boards. This year, too, equal opportunity was maintained by accepting applications based on merit only.”

Refuting the claim of students from a particular state board being “favoured”, Gupta added, “Being a prestigious central university with a long legacy of quality teaching and research, candidates across the country aspire to study in our colleges, departments and centres. It is our utmost responsibility to maintain justice and equity to all meritorious candidates coming not only from Indian states, but also from abroad.”

Nuthan Kiron Raj, a former student of Hindu College and a member of Telangana Students’ Association, said, “Such a statement is derogatory and condemnable. It was a very biased and prejudiced statement. There can be faults in the grading system, but singling out a particular state is unjust. As we don’t have a common grading system throughout the country, there can be differentiated grades. But that doesn’t give anyone the right to give a distorted statement against a particular state.”

Pens-only and extra blank circle: CBSE’s plan for Boards in Nov

Pens-only and extra blank circle: CBSE’s plan for Boards in Nov

Datesheet, Detailed Guidelines For Term-1 MCQ Exams Next Week

Manash.Gohain @timesgroup.com

New Delhi:08.10.2021

Candidates appearing for the MCQ-type Term 1 CBSE Board Exams this November will be allowed to use only pens to mark answers. The OMR answer sheets will, however, have an additional blank space/circle for the students to use if they decide to change their response to a question.

“If four options to answer a particular question are provided, there will also be an additional blank space. If the students, during revising or for any other reason, realise that they have marked the wrong choice, they can strike it off, darken the correct circle and write the same (like1, 2, 3 or 4 or a, b, c or d) in the additional blank space. A combination of intelligent character recognition (ICR) and optical mark recognition (OMR) techniques will be used to evaluate such responses,” CBSE controller of examinations Dr Sanyam Bhardwaj told exclusively to TOI.

He also said the practical exams will be conducted by own schools of the candidates.

He said, “Marks scored in the practical exams have always been questioned and very often we have seen significant variations in marks obtained by the same student in theroretical and practical exams. CBSE wants the school to be responsible and assess students on actual performance. The Term 1 practicals are to be conducted by schools themselves. Based on the present Covid situation and the vaccination drive underway, we are expecting that Term 2 practicals would be conducted by the CBSE”.

With around 40 days for the exams to begin, schools and candidates are eagerly waiting for the schedule and guidelines of the exams. To that, Bhardwaj said, “CBSE will issue the instructions after it finalises the complete scheme (of the exam) and we will apprise all the stakeholders with all aspects of the exam.”

TOI has learnt that students can expect the announcement of exam dates and guidelines in another four to five days once the Board gets the complete list of candidates (the last date is October 9, 2021).

The CBSE has split the board exams into two parts — Term 1 and Term 2. A candidate’s final score will be calculated on the basis of his/her performance in both Terms. As per the new scheme, Term 1 will be a 90-minute objectivetype exams, while Term 2 will be a 120-minute subjective tests. Both will have practicals.

On the marking system, Bhardwaj said each question will carry equal marks and candidates will get options as well.

IN FOR A REVAMPED SYSTEM

Take 2nd dose or get barred from public places in Indore

Take 2nd dose or get barred from public places in Indore

Indore:08.10.2021

Health authorities have asked district administration to take strict measures for completing second dose of Covid-19 doses among people resisting it.

The authorities seek deterrent measures to disallow overdue/due people from entry to public places to complete vaccination.

The district has around seven lakh overdue/ due people eligible for second dose administration but not turning out as drive lost momentum in the last one month or so. District Immunisation in-charge Dr Tarun Gupta said, “Because of lower turn out of people for taking their second dose despite becoming eligible is a cause of concern. The vaccine gives maximum protection after two dose inoculations.”

“Those who have taken the first dose and not come for the second dose are resisting it because of fake confidence of protection, vaccine apprehensiveness, complacency”, said Dr Gupta.

An adult person become due after completing a gap of 84 days after first dose in case of Covishield and for covaxin it is 28 days. The overdue people are those, who aren’t taking their second doses after 14 days of prescribed gap in Covishield and seven days in Covaxin. TOI on October 6 reported how the mass vaccination drive lost momentum.

Following it, the district administration in the last week wrote to secretaries, presidents of all associations to ensure full immunization of their members. TNN

Indoreans get jab at a mobile vaccination centre

PG resident doctors protest hike in fees, non-payment of pandemic allowance

PG resident doctors protest hike in fees, non-payment of pandemic allowance

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:08.10.2021

Resident doctors pursuing post-graduation courses in various medical colleges in Karnataka boycotted elective work on Thursday, while seeking reduction in academic fees and payment of Covid-19 allowances. However, they called off the protest by the evening after the medical education minister assured them that their allowances will be paid soon.

Doctors said that although the Covid allowance was announced in May, none have received it yet. The allowance amounts to Rs 10,000 a month per resident doctor.

Emergency services, ICUs and Covid-related services were unhindered by the strike since doctors only boycotted only elective services. Authorities at Victoria Hospital said faculty, staff, senior residents and fellowship persons of all departments managed OPDs on Thursday.

The resident doctors’ other demand — reduction of tuition fees — is yet to be addressed. “The minister said it will take time to decide as there are technical issues involved,” said a Karnataka Association of Resident Doctors office bearer.

The association revealed the state government had hiked fees from Rs 23,000 to Rs 1.3 lakh in 2019. There are around 5,000 resident doctors in the state. The association says fees for PG courses in the neighbouring state of Kerala is only Rs 11,500, while Rajasthan charges Rs 12,000. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh charge no fees. In Maharashtra, it is Rs 90,000. At the same time, the stipend is the lowest in Karnataka amongst these states at Rs 45,000-Rs 55,000. In Delhi and Gujarat, it is as high as Rs 85,000.

“Although the government and public glorified us as Covid warriors, it is of interest to note that, as young doctors, have in reality paid the government a hefty sum of money to do this thankless job,” the association said. “Umpteen representations were made to the government and administration in the past year to waive fees for the year 2021-22 in view of the fact that the past academic year was solely spent on Covid-19 care with near nil academics and clinical exposure in our chosen specialities. Government has no explanation for the hefty fee hike from thousands to lakhs.”

About 65-75% of patients in state-run hospitals are managed by resident doctors and one-fifth of them had contracted Covid-19, they said.

WARRIORS IN THE LURCH: Members of Karnataka Association of Resident Doctors during their demonstration on Thursday

Demand for travel bookings surges beyond pre-Covid levels

Demand for travel bookings surges beyond pre-Covid levels

Swati.Mathur@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:08.10.2021

A steady increase in Covid vaccination, combined with easing of travel restrictions and the ensuing festive season, have led to a surge in demand for travel that service providers say is even higher than pre-Covid levels.

TOI spoke to multiple players including Thomas Cook India Ltd (TCIL), SOTC Travel Ltd, MMT, Booking.com and Yatra and each said bookings for travel in the last quarter of 2021 have been witnessing a big surge.

A joint survey of 2,500 customers by TCIL and SOTC, showed the UAE, particularly the ongoing Dubai Expo 2020, to be the biggest drivers of demand for international travel in the coming months. A similar assessment of travel appetite by Booking.com, on the other hand, found the UAE, France and UK, Switzerland and Italy were the top five international destinations picked by Indian travellers between October 1 and November 30.

The TCIL survey also said that almost 77% of its surveyed customers were keen on international travel, and that apart from the Dubai Expo 2020, venues of IPL and T20 World Cup matches have been good crowd pullers too.

The pent-up demand for travel also seems to be impacting holiday durations and budgets, with most willing to loosen their purse strings for a chance to set out again. A majority of travellers appeared keen to take week-long breaks at least, while budgets, TCIL said, ranged for anything between ₹70,000 (for a four-night trip) to upwards of ₹2,50,000 per person for luxury packages.

TCIL’s Rajeev Kale said customer response has also prompted his company to tailor demand-based curated products.

Full report on www.toi.in

India to issue tourist visas from Oct 15

India to issue tourist visas from Oct 15

Bharti Jain & Saurabh Sinha TNN

New Delhi:08.10.2021

Announcing the opening up of the country to international tourists almost 19 months after tourist visas were suspended due to outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the home ministry on Thursday said it will begin issuing fresh tourist visas in a phased manner, starting with foreigners arriving on chartered flights, from October 15 onwards.

While fresh tourist visas will be granted to foreigners entering India via chartered flights with effect from October 15, 2021. The facility will be extended to foreigners coming in flights other than chartered ones from November 15, 2021. An officer explained that ‘other than chartered flights’ meant that fresh tourist visas may initially be granted to foreigners coming in from countries with which India has an ‘air bubble arrangement’. As and when demands builds up and commercial flights also start operating, tourist visas will be issued for those entering India by commercial flights.

All due protocols and norms relating to Covid-19, as notified by the ministry of health & family welfare from time to time, shall be adhered to by the foreign tourists, carriers bringing them into India and all other stakeholders at landing stations, the home ministry said in a statement.

During a virtual event with a cross-section of people from Goa last month. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the central government was taking steps to welcome back foreign tourists.

Full report on www.toi.in

BOOST FOR TRAVEL INDUSTRY