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Thursday, January 22, 2026

GU BCom hall ticket blunder causes chaos

GU BCom hall ticket blunder causes chaos 22.01.2026

Ahmedabad : Chaos and confusion gripped Gujarat University (GU) students as serious discrepancies emerged in the hall tickets for the BCom Semester 1 exams, scheduled to begin on Friday. The administrative lapse forced thousands of students to return to colleges to exchange faulty hall tickets for revised versions just 48 hours before the exams. GU originally scheduled the exams for Jan 22, later pushing them back by a day to accommodate Foundation course exams.

Despite knowing about this change, GU officials generated the first batch of hall tickets on Jan 20 with outdated dates and incorrect exam sequences. On realizing the error, the university regenerated the hall tickets on Jan 21, instructing colleges to urgently distribute the corrected versions. This left colleges struggling to recall students who had already collected the initial documents, leading to a frantic second round of distribution. TNN

Staff crunch: Most univs operate at 50%

V.Srivatsal@timesofindia.com 22.01.2026

Trichy : Data from 21 state universities received under an RTI petition shows most institutions are functioning with around 50% vacancies. A few, including Madras University, have vacancies as high as 65% of sanctioned strength across ranks of professor, associate professor and assistant professor.

Fourteen universities fall in 40–50% vacancy range, with TN physical education and sports university at 56%, Manonmaniam Sundaranar university at 50% and Bharathidasan university at 49%. With double-digit retirements expected in 2026 and 2027, the situation could worsen.

Bharathiar university is the only institution with relatively lower vacancies at 15%, though it is also set to see over 20 retirements by 2026–27, says the RTI data collected by an activist between Apr and various months of 2025. Sources said the last major recruitment drive across state universities was carried out in 2014. “It is not just this govt, but the previous govt as well. Steps will have to be taken to address this at the earliest, as it affects students’ education. If there are not enough qualified staff, how can quality education be delivered,” said former Madras university V-C P Duraisamy. There are 335 vacancies against a sanctioned strength of 515 at the university.

“Guest faculty are engaged to bridge the gap. While many of them are competent, they are not recognised as regular employees and therefore cannot take up several academic responsibilities. They are not permitted to guide research scholars or formally present projects and papers, affecting the research output a regular staff may have added. The shortage of regular staff also affects formation of committees with diverse representation, resulting in same individuals being repeatedly nominated to university and govt committees,” said a senior retired professor from BDU.

Former AUT president K Pandiyan said the crisis is financial. “UGC restrictions on distance education reduced income. For years, TN withheld block grants from institutions earning higher

revenues. Grants were restored after 2019, but it didn’t help. Poor recruitment in the past affected research inflows, while corruption, administrative lapses and nepotism weakened things,” he said.

Phase-2 metro stretch getting ready for final inspection

U.Tejonmayam@timesofindia.com 22.01.2026

Chennai : The 14.5-km phase-2 metro rail stretch from Poonamallee Bypass to Vadapalani is getting ready for final inspection by the Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) ahead of its proposed opening for passenger operations in Feb. Commuters, however, may not get access to at least seven stations between Porur Junction and Saligramam immediately, as civil work and passenger amenities at these stations are yet to be completed.

These stations will instead be commissioned in phases before mid-2026, officials said. The stretch includes seven stations, of which four are double-decker stations spread over a 4-km section. When the line opens next month, driverless metro trains will bypass these stations and terminate at Vadapalani, where commuters can use the existing skywalk to use the phase-1 metro line towards airport, Central and Egmore.

On Wednesday, workers were seen preparing the skywalk and entry points at Vadapalani station, while stations between Porur and Poonamallee Bypass were getting final touches to their facades. “We will open stations one by one before June 2026, which was the original target,” a metro rail official said.

The stations between Porur Junction and Saligramam include the doubledecker stations at Alapakkam, Karambakkam, Valsaravakkam and Alwarthirunagar, besides Saligramam Warehouse and Saligramam stations.

The 14.5-km stretch forms part of the 26.1-km corridor-4 from Lighthouse to Poonamallee Bypass. CMRL began trial runs between Porur and Poonamallee in 2025, followed by trials on the Vadapalani–Porur section in Jan 2026. So far, CMRS completed inspection of the driverless trains, while inspections of the viaduct, tracks, signalling systems and station amenities are yet to be carried out. After inspections, CMRS will submit its report to the Railway Board. “After the Railway Board issues the authorisation for passenger operations, we will inform both Centre and state govt, which will decide the opening date,” the official said.

Officials said advancing the opening to Vadapalani, instead of waiting till June, would allow phase-2 to connect with existing phase-1 lines. “It will make commuting to city easier, as passengers can now reach airport or Central via Vadapalani,” said a resident of Iyyappanthangal, S Hemachandran.

Wednesday, January 21, 2026

HC: No addl certificate needed for MD anaesthesiology docs

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 21.01.2026

Bengaluru : The high court has held that a medical doctor with a three-year MD degree in anaesthesiology qualifies as a registered medical practitioner under Rule 2(iv) (ib) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Rules and could thus be nominated as a designated doctor. The ruling came while allowing a joint petition filed by the Mangaluru branch of Indian Society of Anaesthesiologists, the Nursing Home and Hospital Management Association, Mangaluru, and Mangala Hospital and Mangala Kidney Foundation, Mangaluru.

Mangala Hospital had challenged a June 27, 2025 communication from the assistant drugs controller of Mangaluru, refusing to renew its licence on grounds that the designated doctor — though an MD in anaesthesiology — lacked a certificate in pain relief and palliative care for opioid-dependence treatment. The official had indicated that the licence would be renewed if such a certificate was produced. The hospital claimed that MD anaesthesiology training inherently includes structured instruction in pain management, palliative care, and opioid-based therapy, including clinical use of narcotic analgesics, as mandated in the curriculum. It added that there was no statutory or regulatory requirement under the governing medical or narcotics control framework mandating the acquisition of any separate or additional certificate for a medical practitioner so qualified to provide pain relief, palliative care, or opioid-based treatment.

On the other hand, the state govt defended its action, contending that the rules mandated possession of such training as a prerequisite. However, deputy solicitor general H Shanthi Bhushan, appearing for the central govt, submitted that a degree in MD anaesthesiology was a recognised postgraduate qualification under National Medical Commission (NMC) and inherently satisfied the requirement under Rule 52N of the NDPS Rules, 1985, for registered medical practitioners to possess, prescribe, and dispense essential narcotic drugs for pain relief and palliative care. He also submitted that no additional training was required for MD anaesthesiology holders to obtain an additional certificate or training in terms of Form 3F of the NDPS Rules.

He also placed on record the opinion of subject expert Dr Atul Ambekar, professor, National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, and department of psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. After perusing the materials on record, Justice Suraj Govindaraj pointed out that the central govt itself had categorically come to the conclusion that a registered medical practitioner holding an MD (anaesthesiology) degree does not require supplementary training in order to prescribe essential narcotic drugs for palliative care and pain management. Allowing the petition, the judge directed the assistant drugs controller, Mangaluru, to consider the qualification of the nominated doctor as sufficient and issue the necessary certificate of licence renewal to Mangala Hospital.