10 fresh cases take India’s Omicron tally to 155

10 fresh cases take India’s Omicron tally to 155

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

20.12.2021

India’s Omicron tally crossed the 150-mark on Sunday and stood at 155 with 10 fresh cases reported from two states --- six from Maharashtra and four from Gujarat.

Maharashtra tops the chart in the statewise tally with 54 cases, followed by Delhi which has 22 cases. Among the new cases in Maharashtra, four were detected in Mumbai and one each in Pimpri Chinchwad and Pune (rural). The four cases detected in Mumbai were overseas travelers – two from UK and others from Tanzania -- who tested positive for Covid-19 when screened at the airport. All of them are fully vaccinated.

The Pune case is a 5-yearold boy, who is a close contact of a traveller from Dubai. The Pimpri Chinchwad case is a 46-year-old returnee from a middle eastern country. Maharashtra health authorities said that of the 54 cases, 28 have already been discharged, while the rest remain asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic.

Paper leaked from Sanand press; 3 held

GSSSB EXAM

Paper leaked from Sanand press; 3 held

Ambulance Driver, Nurse Among Accused

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:20.12.2021

In a major breakthrough, Gandhinagar Police have arrested the three main conspirators behind the leaking of the head clerk examination paper. The Gujarat Subordinate Services Selection Board (GSSSB) exam was held on December 12. Gandhinagar cops arrested the three on Saturday.

The questioning of the three accused has revealed that the paper was leaked from a Sanand printing press which the board had contracted.

The accused have been identified as Deepak Patel, a resident of Hathijan in Dahegam; Mangesh Shirke, a resident of Nava Naroda; and Shirke’s relative, Kishor Acharya, a resident of Manipur in Sanand. “Gandhinagar Police were given the task by range IG Abhay Chudasama to nab the accused,” said Gandhinagar SP Mayur Chavda. “A team of the local crime branch officers in coordination with Sabarkantha Police began an investigation.” Chavda said cops have found that the main accused, Jayesh Patel, and Deepak Patel had been introduced by another accused named Deval Patel.

Jayesh had sold the question paper to three students: two in Prantij and one in Mehsana.

Deepak was an ambulance driver at a hospital where Deval was a nurse. Deepak contacted Shirke, who worked as the night manager at a private hospital in Mithakhali. Acharya, the uncle of Shirke wife, worked at the printing press in Sanand. Chavda said that Acharya, a printing press supervisor, obtained the paper and along with Shirke and Deepak sold it to Deval and Jayesh for Rs 9 lakh. Chavda added that cops have seized Rs 7 lakh from Shirke’s house. Chavda said that Jayesh took a token amount of Rs 1-2 lakh from a target candidate and retained the candidate’s original documents. If the candidate received the leaked paper, he or she had to pay Rs 10-12 lakh. The documents were returned only after the hefty amount was paid.

Is the Covid-19 booster the same as a vaccine?

Is the Covid-19 booster the same as a vaccine?

20.12.2021

Yes, Covid-19 boosters use the same recipe as the original shots, despite the emergence of more contagious variants of the virus. The vaccines weren’t tweaked to better match the Delta or Omicron variants.

The vaccines work by training your body to recognise and fight the spike protein that coats the coronavirus and helps it invade the body’s cells. The increased protection you might get from a booster adjusted to better match the Delta or other variants would be marginal, says Dr Paul Goepfert, director of the Alabama Vaccine Research Clinic at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, US. Manufacturing doses with a new formula would have also delayed the rollout of the booster shots. Moderna and Pfizer are studying boosters tweaked for the Delta, Omicron and other variants. Health authorities would have to decide if and when a vaccine formula swap would be worthwhile.

—AP

CBSE review committee for third party intervention in paper setting process

CBSE review committee for third party intervention in paper setting process

Following the furore over an inappropriate passage in the question paper, the Board is determined to strengthen its remedial measures and prevent a recurrence

Rajlakshmi.Ghosh@timesgroup.com

20.12.2021

The CBSE plans to set up an expert committee to thoroughly review and strengthen the question paper setting process. This has come in the wake of a gender row over a comprehension passage in the CBSE class X English paper where the Board expressed regret over the unfortunate incident. CBSE has dropped the passage and will be awarding full marks to the concerned students.

Talking to Education Times, Sanyam Bhardwaj, controller of Examinations, CBSE, says, “The review committee will consist of members with expertise in conducting examinations and in academics. This thirdparty intervention will help streamline the paper setting.”

While the review committee will assess the processes, it would not be involved in the actual setting of the question papers which is the task of subject experts who are senior academics in CBSE affiliated schools/other educational institutes with what Bhardwaj calls “a high level of integrity”. “The question papers will be prepared as per the recommendations of the Committee to avoid recurrence of such above mentioned anomalies.”

The Board has detailed guidelines that demand the question papers to be based on the syllabus and as per the sample papers. Also, it should be free from gender and political bias. Bhardwaj says, guidelines also emphasise the fact that the questions must be class-neutral, region neutral, not touching upon the controversial, social and critical issues. “The subject experts in case of the recent issues arising out of the question papers had missed the guidelines. This has made the review committee all the more pertinent as it will help strengthen the remedial process of paper setting and evaluation. The committee will independently scrutinise the entire process,” he adds.

Pavnesh Kumar, former controller of Examinations, CBSE underlines the measures in place to offset the aforementioned situations. “CBSE gives elaborate written instructions when the paper setting assignment is handed to the subject experts to avoid discrepancies.”

“Once the question paper is set, it is examined by moderators to see if the content coverage is as per the design of the Board, be it in terms of the number and types of questions, and the marks and weightage that are allocated to each content unit,” says Kumar. He adds that the job of paper setting is both strenuous and time consuming due to which not too many academics are inclined to take it up, nor is there much of a financial incentive for the task.

Suggesting that the Board should carefully engage experts to evaluate each set of question papers before going to print, Kumar says that the subject experts should be made permanent employees of the Board so that they are more responsible towards their work.”

“Additionally, the controller of examinations should have more academic manpower for the smooth functioning of the examination conducting machinery,” he adds.

Once the question paper is set, it is examined by moderators to see if the content coverage is according to the standard set by the Board

School head has been abusing SC students for years, say parents

School head has been abusing SC students for years, say parents

Sambath.Kumar@timesgroup.com

Coimbatore:20.12.2021

The headmistress of the government school at Iduvai village near Tirupur, who was placed under suspension on Saturday for making scheduled caste students clean toilets, had been repeatedly abusing SC children for the past three years, according to students of the school and their parents.

A parent told TOI that some parents had raised the issue with the headmistress last year after children complained that she was forcing them to clean toilets. “At least 10 of us met the headmistress then, but she maintained that our children were at fault. We left assuming she was punishing children for their mistakes, but it seems now that she abused children in the name of caste,” the parent said.

A Class IX girl, who was one of the complainants, said she had been witnessing such treatment of SC students for three years. “On a few occasions when we were caught coming late to the school, the headmistress would mock us citing our poverty and our caste. She would say our lower caste parents have put us in government schools as they could not afford private schools. When she saw us talking to boys, she would say that we are not good at studies and we should be married off soon,” the student said.

It is learned that a teacher had persuaded the students to take up the issue with district chief education officer R Ramesh, who visited the school on Friday. Prima facie evidence pointed out that the allegations were true, a senior official from the school education department said. “The headmistress was silent when questioned, so we placed her under suspension,” the official said.

Tejas passengers fume over ₹20 collected for newspaper, water

Tejas passengers fume over ₹20 collected for newspaper, water

Ananth.MK@timesgroup.com

20.12.2021

Commuters in Tejas express are unhappy over not giving them a choice to opt out from paying ₹20 extra for the railways to provide them with the copy of a newspaper and a bottle of water. Sixty-four-year-old T M Murthi who had travelled from Chennai to Madurai in the train wrote to the railway minister about it and southern railway has offered an explanation.

Murthi, AICTU general secretary for Tamil Nadu, said that he travelled on Saturday and found a bottle of water and a newspaper on the seat allotted to him. “The TTE examined my ticket and demanded ₹20 for the water bottle and newspaper. It is unjust to ask for what I did not ask for. The TTE showed the passengers' list in which he was instructed to collect money,” he said. The TTE left without arguing with him but continued to collect the same from other commuters.

Southern railway on Sunday offered an explanationstating that the additional charge is collected in line with the Railway board policy for premium trains such as Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto, in return for provision of packaged drinking water and newspaper. In view of the pandemic, catering services, supply of drinking water and newspapers were suspended.

These services have been introduced with effect from December 17, 2021. Hence the ticket checking staffs have been instructed to collect the excess fare of ₹20 from passengers who have booked their tickets prior to December 16. Thereafter advance payment of catering charges was enabled on IRCTC portal to facilitate online booking of catering services for such passengers.

Covid-19 ex-gratia: Kin of deceased left to run between government offices

Covid-19 ex-gratia: Kin of deceased left to run between government offices

Published: 18th December 2021 11:25 AM 

By Jayakumar Madala

Express News Service

TIRUCHY: Lack of proper mandate has left kin of several persons who succumbed to Covid-19 running to various government offices, wondering whether they are eligible for ex-gratia announced by the government.

The State government had, earlier this month, announced an ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 to the kin of those who died due to the infection. With guidelines issued by the government not providing any clarity with regard to cases of victims who died as ‘suspected cases,’ several relatives are now running from one government department to another to check if they are eligible for the compensation under the State Disaster Relief Fund.

“A member of my family died during the second wave in April. He was certified as a suspected case and all Covid protocols were followed during his cremation.

When we received the death certificate, the cause of death was mentioned as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Right now, we are not sure if we are eligible for the ex-gratia,” said Latha, a relative of the deceased.

The Government Order mentions that the guidelines of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Indian Council of Medical Research will be followed, and only with death certificates mentioned with cause of death as Covid-19 will be eligible for ex-gratia. However, several doctors who handled Covid-19 patients during the pandemic, said the number of death certificates issued with cause of death as Covid-19 were very less than the actual number of deaths.

A doctor, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said, “If a death is certified as Covid death, it will be included in the government medical bulletin, which is issued every day. However, several cases which were treated and cremated with Covid protocols are issued certificate with cause of death mentioned as COPD, pneumonia, heart attack among others. The government should consider including the valid cases based on the medical reports taken at that time and provide ex-gratia to all of them.”

It may be noted that when the State government provided financial assistance to minor children who lost either single or both parents due to the virus, having a death certificate with Covid-19 as cause of death was not required. All beneficiaries who had medical reports showing symptoms of Covid-like CT scans or prior RT-PCR reports were provided with the compensation. Relatives of many Covid-19 victims have urged the government to consider similar guidelines.

When asked about the steps taken to address the issue in the district, Collector S Sivarasu said, “We have already provided ex-gratia to kin of 518 out of

1,092 who had died due to Covid-19. Steps are being taken to identify the others and provide them compensation. Relatives with valid reports can submit their application in ex-gratia for Covid-19 section on (http://www.tn.gov.in). The officials concerned will contact the kin and provide compensation if the cases are genuine.”