Hry’s recruitment scam is bigger than Vyapam: Surjewala

Hry’s recruitment scam is bigger than Vyapam: Surjewala

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chandigarh:24.11.2021

AICC general secretary and former Haryana minister Randeep Singh Surjewala on Tuesday said the cash-for-job scam of dental surgeons and HCS has emerged as a bigger scam than that of Vyapam.

Seeking a judiciary-monitored probe by an independent agency, Surjewala categorically sought disbanding of the current set of HPSC and HSSC team with immediate effect. He also demanded the review of recruitments and tests which were held in Haryana Board of School Education and other departments under the direct supervision of Anil Nagar HCS.

Questioning Nagar’s credentials, Surjewala categorically said the scam is linked to higher ups in politics and state government who were getting the major pie.

“Hence, we simply want entire investigations under the close monitoring and supervision of chief justice of Punjab and Haryana high court. Besides, the circumstances in which Nagar had been assigned the responsibilities by surpassing the seniority of IAS officers too should be probed,” said Surjewala.

“HPSC has become ‘Haryana Post Sales Counter’ under Khattar-Chautala government, the senior Congress leader said.

Now, one thing is absolutely clear that Khattar saheb had been misleading crores of youth of Haryana for the past seven years by raising false slogans of getting job ‘Bina Parchi, Bina Kharchi’. Under the BJP-JJP government, even the size of ‘kharchi’ has inflated into ‘suitcase’, Surjewala added.

Rlys allows tour operators to run Bharat Gaurav trains

Rlys allows tour operators to run Bharat Gaurav trains

Dipak.Dash@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:24.11.2021

The Indian Railways has opened its doors to travel and tour operators, state tourism entities and any interested party to run theme-based “Bharat Gaurav” trains. They can run these trains on any route of their choice and will be free to determine the fares as well. This means like the railways’ IRCTC, private players like Makemytrip, Cleartrip etc can run such trains.

Announcing that the railways has started accepting applications from interested parties, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday said the railways has earmarked 3,033 coaches — both AC and non-AC — an equivalent of 150 trains, which such players can take on lease, refurbish and can run them for tourists. Sources said some of the rail coaches which were converted as “Covid coaches” and are still idle can also be utilised for this purpose. Over 3,000 such coaches are deployed across different zones. He said these trains will be different from the railways’ plan to allow private players to operate trains on regular routes.

The operators can procure trains, if they wish, do branding and advertisement inside and on the exterior. The minimum lease period would be two years and maximum up to 10 years.

Singapore Airlines to resume flights on Nov. 29

Singapore Airlines to resume flights on Nov. 29

To start non-VTL flights ‘progressively’

24/11/2021

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI

The Singapore Airlines Group announced resumption of passenger flights from India from November 29. These will include daily Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) services for quarantine-free entry from Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai.

The airline group, which includes its low-cost arm Scoot, will also start non-VTL flights from Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi, Amritsar and Tiruchirappalli “progressively” from November 29. The VTL and non-VTL flights will be operated under an “air bubble” pact.

Only fully vaccinated passengers are allowed on VTL flights. They are exempt from quarantine but have to take a PCR test two days before departure and on arrival at Changi airport.

Unvaccinated or partially vaccinated passengers can travel on non-VTL flights after a PCR test two days before departure, and will have to quarantine at the traveller’s declared place of stay. On completion of quarantine, they will have to undergo another PCR test.

After Airtel, Voda Idea raises call, data rates

After Airtel, Voda Idea raises call, data rates

24.11.2021

Beleaguered telecom operator Vodafone Idea on Tuesday announced an increase in mobile call and data tariffs across plans by 18-25% for prepaid customers with effect from November 25, the move coming a day after a similar move by Bharti Airtel. Vodafone Idea increased the minimum value of recharge by 25% for 28 days to Rs 99 from the existing Rs 79. Market leader Reliance Jio is yet to announce a revision in mobile rates, though analysts and the broader industry expects it to happen soon. TNN

Colleges struggle to make room for students

Colleges struggle to make room for students

Sukshma R & Ragu Raman TNN

Madurai/Chennai:24.11.2021

A day after the higher education department directed all colleges to conduct physical classes for all students, universities and colleges across the state are trying to find ways to accommodate more students on campus while following Covid-19 protocols.

Though the state government removed the shift system, professors and principals said it would be difficult to maintain social distancing inside classrooms and hostels when institutions call full strength back to campus. With most first year students unvaccinated, there is also concern of mixing them with vaccinated students.

Anna University is mulling ways to accommodate all students on campus and hostels following the government order.

“We may allow 30 to 40 students per classroom and will accommodate more than one student per room in hostels. After finalising the details, we will call first year students to campus,” said vice-chancellor R Velraj. The university is already conducting physical classes for second and third year students while online classes are going on for first year students. Final year students finished their classes entirely in physical mode in the current semester.

Madras University is also renovating hostels to accommodate more students. “We have informed all colleges to conduct physical classes for all students. First year PG students will join physical classes after completing their induction programme in online mode,” said S Gowri, vice-chancellor.

Colleges in Chennai like Women's Christian College issued circulars asking all students to attend physical classes. A professor from the college said they will make sure there is no crowding inside the campus.

In Madurai, colleges like Thiagarajar College of Arts and Science and The American College said they would call students back to campus. “We won’t have much of an issue in case of space. The syllabus for this semester will be continued in the physical classes,” said Davamani M Christober, principal of The American College. D Pandiaraja, principal of Thiagarajar College of Arts and Science, said they will revise the syllabus and conduct the exam according to the government’s directive.

Colleges with higher student strength are a little worried about holding all classes offline. But college managements say they can only follow what the government says and it might not be possible to have only a restricted number of students in a classroom and that relaxation is needed.

Students meanwhile also expressed some concerns over Covid-19 vaccination and hostellers also being affected.

“First year students have to come to the campus without being vaccinated. We just wanted this semester exam to be held online. We could have then proceeded to have offline exams from next semester without any delay or confusion. Hostel students who stay in distant areas still have to attend online classes only,” said a second year UG student who took part in the recent protests against offline exams

15 districts see marginal rise in Covid cases

15 districts see marginal rise in Covid cases

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:24.11.2021

Fifteen districts including Chennai reported a marginal increase in new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, when the state reported a drop to 741 cases from 750 on Monday. There were 13 deaths that took the cumulative toll since March 2020 to 36,401. At the end of the day, after 808 patients were discharged from the state registry, there were 8,536 patients seeking treatment for the viral infection.

While Coimbatore (119) reported the maximum number of new cases in the state, Chennai reported 114 new cases compared to 110 on Monday.

The sharpest increase was reported from Vellore. The district reported 15 cases compared to 10 on Monday. At least 22 districts reported fewer than 10 cases each, while Tuticorin reported zero new cases.

Active cases were the highest in Chennai and Coimbatore ( both at 1274) on Tuesday. While Erode had 830 patients, Chengalpet had 659 and Tiruppur had 555. All other districts reported fewer than 500 active cases. T,enkasi (9) and Theni(10) had the least number of active cases in the state.

Of the 13 deaths, there were three each in Chennai and Coimbatore, two in Tiruppur and one each in Trichy, Thanjavur, Kancheepuram, Sivaganga and Villupuram.

Meanwhile, 3.5 lakh people took the Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday. This pushed the dosage tally at government vaccination centres to 6.4 crore. Since May 1, 27.2 lakh doses have been administered in private vaccination centres.

No deaths in Pondy for 2nd day

Puducherry:

The Union territory of Puducherry did not report any Covid-19 death for the second consecutive day on Tuesday and the death toll remained at 1,870. Puducherry headquarters has the maximum fatalities with 1,463 followed by Karaikal

(250), Yanam (108) and Mahe  (49). The fatality rate of the infection remained at 1.5%.

TNN

Anna university to charge 18% GST for migration certs

Anna university to charge 18% GST for migration certs

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:24.11.2021

Anna University on Tuesday announced that all candidates applying for migration certificates, certificate verification and seeking photocopy of answer sheets need to pay 18% GST as the university adopted the Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017. "The services which are part of the curriculum are exempted under GST. All other services are taxable as per GST Act 2017," a circular from controller of examinations said. Students who graduate need to pay GST for provisional certificates, consolidated mark statements, grade sheets and degree certificates. They also need to pay the tax for getting duplicate certificates of grade sheets, provisional certificates and consolidated marksheets.

There will be no GST on examination fees, revaluation fees, transcript fees and degree certificate, rank certificate of current students.

"The beneficiaries are requested to pay the GST as mentioned above along with the regular fees prescribed for each item," the circular further said.

Professors from the university said the GST council wanted the university to collect tax for all services.

Earlier, speaking to reporters after inaugurating a book exhibition, Anna University vice-chancellor R Velraj said the university will form a committee to review the revaluation fees following representation from the students. The university is collecting ₹700 per answer sheet for revaluation.

He further said the syllabus for the first year students has been trimmed to reduce the burden. More than one lakh books have been displayed in the exhibition. The university asked the faculty members, research scholars and students to recommend engineering and non-engineering books for the library.