Monday, January 31, 2022

KERALA 'S SUNDay lockdown affects life


 

Demands of Government Doctors remain unfulfilled


 

Education


 

SC: Original PoA not needed to sell property

 SC: Original PoA not needed to sell property


Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

31.01.2022


New Delhi: In a big warning to property owners who intend to sell their assets through a power of attorney (PoA) holder, the Supreme Court has ruled that the PoA holder can sell the property and register the sale by merely producing a copy of the PoA and that the original was not mandatory for registration of the sale.

This means, if the proper ty owner orally cancels the PoA and takes back the original document without entering into a written agreement on cancellation of the PoA, it would still allow the PoA holder to sell the property or land with the help of a copy of the original PoA document.

A bench of Justices K M Joseph and P S Narasima said, “On an analysis of the provisions (of the RegistrationAct), we have no hesitation in r ejecting the argument of the plaintiff that the non-production of the original power of attorney by the second defendant was fatal to a valid registration being effected. ”

In the case in hand, the owner of the property (p laintiff) had entered into an agreement with a person for sale of his land for Rs 55,000 in 1987. As he was transferred out of the place, he executed a PoA for concluding the sale. The sale, however, didn’t materialise. So, he took back the original PoA and told the person that the PoA stood terminated. But the erstwhile PoA holder applied for a copy of the registered PoA and went ahead with the sale for Rs 30,000 to the same defendant, who had earlier agreed to buy it for Rs 55,000. 

He went to the Registrar’s office and got the sale registered with a copy of the PoA. The Himachal Pradesh high court cancelled the registration of the sale saying nonproduction of original PoA document was fatal to the sale and restored the property to the owner.

The SC set aside the HC order and said the registration was valid as oral cancellation of PoA has no validity before the law and that for registration of sale of land, the PoA holder merely is required to produce a copy of the document and that original was not necessary.

Justi ce Joseph said, “Section 35 of the Registration Act gives authority to the registering authority to satisfyh imself that the persons appearing before him are the persons they represent to be. . . the aforesaid provision deals w ith situations in which the registering authority refuses the registration. If the registering authority is satisfied about the identity of the person. . . , it may not be part of the Registrar’s duty to enquire further. ”



90% parents want to send kids to school in Hry, finds survey

 90% parents want to send kids to school in Hry, finds survey


Tiwari@timesgroup.com

31.01.2022

Siddharth

Gurgaon: Around 90% of parents in the state want to send their children to school and physical classes to resume, an online survey conducted by an association of private institutions has found.

As part of their Siksha Bachao, School Kholo campaign, a group of private schools had last week rolled out the survey to assess the mood of parents regarding offline classes. Although the survey will be carried out for two more days, the association said they had so far rece- ived responses from nearly 14,000 parents and 87% of them wanted to send their kids to school.

Conducted by the Federation of Private Schools’ Welfare Association, the survey had four questions for the parents — do they agree with the closure of schools, is shutting down schools logical when all other activities are operational, has the closure led to learning gaps, and whether they want to send their children back to school.

The association hopes to receive responses from 20,000 parents by Tuesday. Once the survey is complete, representatives of some of the private schools will meet education minister Kanwar Pal and push for physical classes to resume.

“We have launched this survey as part of the Siksha Bachao, School Kholo campaign. Not just schools, pa- rents, too, want offline classes to resume. That is why we are conducting this survey. When both parents and schools are on the same page, we don’t see why the government is not listening to our demands?” asked Kulbhushan Sharma, president of the association.

No moral policing if willingly converted: HC

 No moral policing if willingly converted: HC


Ashutosh.Shukla@timesgroup.com

31.01.2022

Bhopal/Jabalpur: The Madhya Pradesh high court has ruled that no “moral policing” can be allowed when two adults decide to live together by way of marriage or a live-in relationship of their own will.

With this, the bench of Justice Nandita Dubey rejected the argument of the counsel for the MP government that under the provisions of Freedom of Religion Act, 2021, conversion for the sake of marriage is not legal; and marriage so performed is le-gally null and void and the girl should be sent to Nari Niketan for 'rehabilitation'.

The decision came in response to a habeas corpus petition filed by Guljar Ahmed, who had married a Hindu girl, Arti Sahu, who converted to Islam but was then taken away by her parents to her hometown, Varanasi. Justice Dubey directed police to hand the woman back to the petitioner, as she wished, and see to it that they reach home safely and are not threatened thereafter by her parents.

‘Ensure that corpus & petitioner are not threatened’

Guljar Khan had filed a habeas corpus petition, saying he and Arti had married in Maharashtra and she had willingly converted to Islam, but her parents had taken her away by force and have illegally detained her. On the orders of the judge, the 19-year-old woman was produced in court through video conferencing. In her statement, she told the court that she had willingly married Khan and converted to Islam. She said her parents and grandparents had forcibly taken her away to Banaras, where she was beaten up and threatened constantly to give a statement against her husband. The court pointed out that she has categorically stated she was not forced into conversion and whatever she has done was as per her own wishes. The judge noted that the government counsel had vehemently argued that any marriage performed in contravention to section 3 of the Freedom of Religion Act, 2021, shall be deemed null and void. The government counsel said that the Act provides that no person shall convert for the purpose of marriage and any conversion in contravention of this shall be deemed null and void.
The court, however, pointed out that the petitioner and his wife are adults. “Be that as it may, the petitioner and the corpus (woman) are major. No moral policing can be allowed in such matters where two major persons are willing to stay together whether by way of marriage or in a live-in relationship, when the party to that arrangement is doing it willingly and not forced into it,” Justice Dubey said.

“The corpus before this court has clearly stated that she has married the petitioner and wants to stay with him. She is a major and her age is not disputed by any of the parties. The Constitution gives the right to every major citizen of this country to live her or his life as per her or his own wishes. Under the circumstances, the objection raised by the counsel for the state and her prayer to send the corpus to Nari Niketan is rejected,” the judge ordered.

“The police authorities are also directed to see that in future, the corpus and petitioner are not threatened by the parents of the corpus,” the court said.TNN

Many colleges defer opening, wait for outstation students to return

 Many colleges defer opening, wait for outstation students to return

Some To Resume Offline Mode Today

SruthySusan.Ullas@timesgroup.com

31.01.2022

Bengaluru: While the government announced reopening of schools and colleges from Monday, many institutions in the city are planning to defer resuming offline classes by a week to allow time to outstation students to return.

On Saturday, the government announced resumption of offline classes from Monday. Many colleges immediately informed students about the development and asked them to plan their journey while giving them a week’s time to get back on campus. “We have already told them to be prepared to come. We will give only a week’s buffer time after the government declaration,” said Fr Abraham V, vice-chancellor, Christ (deemed to be university).

Until then, many colleges plan to continue with the blended mode. “While local students can come to campuses for clarifications or other academic activities, outstation students can report back by next Monday. Until then, the blended mode will continue,” said Raghu R, spokesperson of Mount Carmel College. In an intimation to its students, Maharani Cluster University too said it will reopen on Friday to give sufficient time to outstation students to book return tickets to Bengaluru.

However, some other institutions like Sheshadripuram Degree College, where locals comprise a majority of the students, will start offline classes from Monday itself. “We’ll decide on a blended approach depending on how it progresses,” said HN Meera, principal.

Some other colleges plan to resume on-campus classes gradually. “Our end-semester exams will start on Tuesday and we will reopen for second and third years then. First-year students will continue with online classes as we don’t want a huge rush on campus,” said Paul Newman, principal of St Joseph’s Evening College. “Offline classes in the day college are likely by April as we wait for Covid cases to drop substantially,” he added.

Jyoti Nivas College too plans to continue with online classes. While the government order on reopening of classes has still not been issued, Bengaluru City University said it will issue an order on Monday morning.

Bangalore University said while on-campus classes for second-year students will start from Monday, first-year classes are likely to begin by next week, by when admissions will be complete.

Time to reopen schools and address the learning losses

 Time to reopen schools and address the learning losses

Young students have forgotten writing notes, numeracy skills, reading abilities and tables

Sonal.Srivastava@timesgroup.com

31-01-2022

Intermittent school closures have caused an almost insurmountable learning loss among students. Data from various factsheets, reports and surveys present a grim picture of how students from classes I-XII were affected by the pandemicrelated school closures. Children have lost writing, reading and numeracy skills; many young students in under-resourced schools have trouble recognising alphabets, while many others have forgotten tables beyond those of 2 and 3.

Educators say that the time is ripe for the reopening of schools, to begin catch-up programmes and remedial classes to bridge the learning gap. They point out that large-scale vaccination programmes and strict following of Covid protocols can help in keeping children in schools.

According to a factsheet released by UNESCO, “more than 616 million students remain affected by full or partial school closures. Many have lost basic numeracy and literacy skills and learning loss due to school closures have left up to 70% of 10-year-old children unable to read or understand a simple text, up from 53% pre-pandemic in lowand middle-income countries. ”

Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a global consulting firm, and Teach for India, a fellowship that helps under-resourced schools, compared how other countries and some Indian states have dealt with continuingeducation through Covid; their findings are compiled in a report titled ‘India Needs To Learn -A Case for Keeping Schools Open. ’ The report reveals that while schools were mostly shut in 2020 (first half), many countries kept schools largely open through subsequent waves. In 2021, many countries including Japan, South Africa, US, UK, and Portugal had schools operational in-person for large parts of the year. In fact, many countries such as France, Canada and UK prioritised keeping schools open vis-a-vis malls, shops, and gyms. In late December 2021, 70% districts in India had less than 25 daily cases. However, with the approaching third wave, most states imposed state-wide school closures.

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2021 for Chhattisgarh says that in the pre-Covid -19 period basic learning outcomes in the state were promising, but Covid-19 caused schools to shut for in-person classes, leading to a drastic drop in children's foundational reading and arithmetic levels in primary classes. The report is based on a survey of 46,021 children in the age category of 3-16 years in 33,432 households across 28 districts of Chhattisgarh.

Recently, findings of a parliamentary committee highlighted the disproportionate impact of Covid on the education of girls. Education ministry submitted that “school closures in India have affected 320 million children enrolled from pre-primary to tertiary levels of education. It has been estimated that of these, about 158 million are female students. ”

Back on track

Educators say that children have forgotten how to write descriptive answers and it will take years of hard work to get them back on track. “They find it difficult to write answers for subjective type questions. Students in junior classes will still be able to bridge the learning
gap, but those in class XI and XII, who have spent the past two years attending online classes from home will face the heat. They will be entering the university system with a weak foundation. Schools will have to revise the curriculum from the previous grade for which they mostly attended classes online,” says Sridhar G, founder, Chethana PU College, a pre-university college in Bengaluru, affiliated to Karnataka Pre-University Education Board. An IIT-Kharagpur gra-duate and a PhD from Johns Hopkins, Sridhar G says that focussing on STEM education can help the country shed covid-induced shackles. Mona Lisa Bal, chairperson, KIIT International School, Bhubaneswar, adds, “We are waiting for official notification to reopen, but once the schools reopen, we will go slow in completing the syllabus. We will be conducting remediation classes to bridge gaps we come acrossthroughassessment. There have been no lab classes and the writing, reading, and numeracy skills have suffered a lot. It will be achallenge for schools to keep them away from gadgets when they return to schools. ”

Children from lower-income groups and under-resourced schools have not been able to attend online classes at all in some cases. “Schools must start with proper safety and Covid protocols. Students from lower-income families do not have enough smartphones, on average there are three-four children in a family, in different grades with varied class timings. It gets to be very difficult for their parents to provide them with a smartphone or a laptop each. Most children, who before the pandemic began, could recite tables up to 20, today cannot go beyond the tables of 2 and 3,” says Vatsala Prabhakar, principal, Gandhi Adarsh Vidyalaya, Agra, to highlight the seriousness of the situation.

How four-year graduation with focus on research helps

 How four-year graduation with focus on research helps

After the four-year research, students can take direct admission in PhD

c-Puniti.Pandey@timesgroup.com

31.01.2022

With the introduction of the four-year research programme in the National Education Policy 2020 students now have an option to choose between the four years and the five-year master's degree.

“The four-year research programme provides more options to the students as they can notonly takeup highereducation abroad but also explore more careeropportunities,” says Manoj Sinha, principal, Aryabhatta College, University of Delhi.

As per the NEP 2020, the students will be awarded a degree of an honours in the discipline with research if they complete the four-year programme in Sciences, Arts or Commerce. The students will be required to complete a thesis or an interns-hip in their final year to complete the research programme.

To provide in-depth knowledge in a subject to create more knowledgeable professionals, Shiv Nadar University is launching academic specialisations to their existing BSc (Research) degree in Chemistry. In the new academic year, the students will have the option to choose from Chemical Biology, Computational Chemistry, Materials Chemistry.

“We admit students from all the Chemistry streamsPCM (Physics-Chemistry-Mathematics) or PCB (Physics-Chemistry-Biology. Since the BSc students were already aligning themselves with an elective that would offer specialisation in a subject, we have now laun-ched a full-time specialisation course. The specialisation programmes willprovide anoption to all our students to enhance their knowledge and understanding,” says Parthapratim Munshi, professor and head, Department of Chemistry, School ofNatural Sciences,Shiv Nadar University, Delhi-NCR.

The programme will initially focus on students acquiring foundation and introductory modules. From the second year onwards, the students will opt for specialisations, which will be introduced by hierarchical additions of modules.

The course structure of the programme includes Chemical Principles, Basic Organic Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Physical Methods in Chemistry, Molecular modelling, Chemical Equilibrium, Electrochemistry, Coordination Chemistry, Chemical Binding, Molecular Spectroscopy, Heterocyclic Chemistry among others.

Highlighting the benefits of four-year research programme over the master's degree, he adds, “ The four-year research programme allows students to have additional capabilities through industry exposure. At the end of the four-year programme, many students come up with co-authored research papers for publishing. Also, many of our four year research programme students have performed better than the 3+2 master degree students. At the Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference held at IIT Kanpur in 2019, students with the research programme fared better than the students with the master's degree.

Students with visual impairment have a right to learn

 Students with visual impairment have a right to learn


Rajlakshmi.Ghosh@timesgroup.com

31.01.2022

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked all its affiliated colleges and universities to integrate suitable educational resources and infrastructure for visually impaired students. “In pandemic times, the challenges are more acute, as the online learning systems across HEIs do not adequately support students with visual disabilities in getting information, access to virtual classroom facilities and participation in assessment. As inclusive education has been highlighted in NEP 2020, the UGC directive could not have come at a better time,” says Himangshu Das, director, National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities (NIEPVD) & Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya National Institute for Persons with Physical Disabilities (PDU-NIPPD).

Challenges one too many

“We have around 200 students pursuing graduation, out of which around 20 visually challenged students are in need of laptops for online education. Plans are on for the distribution of suitable electronic devices, training, oral examination for visually impaired (VI) students,” says A Chidambaram,co-ordinator for Higher Education for Personswith Special Needs (HEPSN), an enabling unit of Pondicherry University (PU) which is headed and executed by visually and physically challenged faculty members.

“Access to information has ₹always been a major problem for the visually challenged in India,” says Muttayya Koganuramath, director, Basava International Information Centre, Basava Samithi, Bengaluru, whose published paper on ‘Learning Resource Centre forthe Visually Challenged Students’, underlines the need for such centres in every HEI for equitable access in education, research, training and employment

Man caught with 830g ‘whale vomit’

 Man caught with 830g ‘whale vomit’



TIMES NEWS NETWORK

31.01.2022


Rajkot: A man from Khambhaliya town of Devbhumi Dwarka district was arrested with 830g of whale vomit estimated to be worth Rs 1 crore.
Sale of sperm whale puke is deemed as illegal under the Wildlife Protection Act. It is mostly used in the fragrance industry to make perfumes as well as making aphrodisiacs.

The arrested person Bhaveshgiri Goswami, 32, was caught from Patel Colony in Jamnagar following specific information about his location. Police got information on that he had come to sell whale vomit.
The seized material was sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for further investigation.

"We are yet to lodge an FIR and invoke the relevant sections against the arrested man. We will do this after the FSL report," said sources in the B-division police sta-tion.

Special Operations Group (SOG) inspector SS Ninama said that Goswami had confessed to getting the whale vomit from the sea coast.
Also called ambergris, the vomi t is a waxy substance that comes out of the sperm whale's digestive system. It's valued at anything from Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore per kilogramme depending o n its purity. The trade and possession of ambergris is banned in India and many othe r countries as well.

Medical students threaten to boycott OPDs from February 1

 PROTEST AGAINST BJMC HOD

Medical students threaten to boycott OPDs from February 1



TIMES NEWS NETWORK

31.01.2022

Ahmedabad: The protest at BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital against Dr Kamlesh Upadhyay, professor and head of the department (HoD) of medicine, for the alleged “illtreatment” meted out to final year MBBS students, entered its nineteenth day on Sunday.

The students have now threatened to boycott Out Patient Department (OPD) duties from February 1. But they will serve in the emergency and attend to Covid patients, they said. The protest intensified on Sunday after students and the JDA alleged that Dr Upadhyay has threatened to “fail students if protests are not withdrawn. ”

The medical students have even raised their ante against the state-appointed two-member committee investigating the matter, alleging partisan attitude. They further alleged that Dr Upadhyay was influencing the probe since he is treating a close family member of a senior IAS official in the health department.

Last month, the Junior  Doctors’ Association (JDA) of BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital had approached the anti-ragging committee of the college, seeking action against Dr Upadhyay.

“Dr Upadhyay had been adamant in not sending the internal marks of undergraduate students to Gujarat University (GU) and it was after a string of sit-out protests that the department had sent the marks on January 24. Why is Dr Upadhayay playing with our careers?” questioned JDA president Oman Prajapati.

The JDA in its petition has also alleged that since the pandemic Dr Upadhyay had been avoiding Covid duties and that even his elevation as HoD of medicine was being internally challenged as he was only the fifth senior among other eligible doctors for that post.

“We feel that an impartial inquiry against an individual like Dr Upadhyay, who wields such influence, is a distant possibility. It is this lack of faith that led us all to embark on this protest,” says Prajapati.

The JDA has also claimed that Dr Upadhyay had threatened postgraduate and undergraduate medical students, telling them that he would not send their marks to GU if ward duties were not adhered to.
“How can students who are attending to Covid patients be asked to visit other wards during the first, second and the third wave? Is that not putting other patients at risk of an infection,” asks Prajapati.



Hold PG, PhD exams offline, colleges told

 Hold PG, PhD exams offline, colleges told



TIMES NEWS NETWORK

31.01.2022

Chennai: Anna University has directed all colleges to hold November/December 2021 exams for postgraduate students (except integrated MBA) and PhD coursework, offline. The university announced that it would release the revised timetable for PG and PhD students shortly on the university's website.

In another circular, the university directed all colleges, including autonomous colleges, to commence physical classes for first semester students on February 1. Physical classes for first semester students studying MBA, MSc (5 years integrated), MCA in university departments and non-autonomous colleges also should commence from February 1. Physical classes for first semester in ME, MTech, MArch, MPlan programmes will commence from February 7.

75% of adults in India are now fully vaxxed

 75% of adults in India are now fully vaxxed


Sushmi.Dey@timesgroup.com


31.01.2022

New Delhi: More than 75% of adults in the country are now fully vaccinated against Covid-19 with two doses of the jabs. This marks a major achievement in the mass immunisation drive that played a crucial role in keeping disease severity, hospitalisation and deaths low during the present surge powered by Omicron. PM Modi on Sunday congratulated fellow citizens for this “momentous feat” and said he is proud of all those who are making the vaccination drive a success.

A total of nearly 166 crore doses have been administe- red so far since the beginning of the immunisation drive on January 16, 2021.

7 of  TN’s 24 AEFI cases linked to vax

A Union health ministry report said seven of the 24 reported severe Adverse Events Following Immunisation cases in Tamil Nadu had side-effects related to the Covid vaccine or the immunisation process. Three patients reported side-effects directly linked to the vaccine and four immunisation-related anxiety reaction. P4

P4

Sunday, January 30, 2022

KERALA UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH SCIENCES


 

A different Omicron story from Kol ICUs

 A different Omicron story from Kol ICUs


Prithvijit.Mitra@timesgroup.com


30.01.2022


Kolkata: Instances of severe respiratory distress and Covid pneumonia has been rising among ICU patients across private hospitals in Kolkata over last two weeks.

This has prompted doctors to suspect that even Omicron can trigger lower respiratory tract illnesses, especially in the case of patients who are ‘unresponsive’ to vaccines.

A section of elderly patients with comorbidities may not have developed antibodies adequately, exposing them to a more severe disease, they argued. So far, Omicron-induced Covid had largely been restricted to upper respiratory tract and hence been mild.

There could be three reasons behind a spurt in the number of severe cases over the last 10 days, said CMRI Hospital director of pulmonology

Raja Dhar. “First, the residual Delta cases seem to be causing severe Covid more frequently than they did even during the second wave when it was the dominant strain. Secondly, a small percentage of Omicron cases have been as virulent as Delta due to a mutation that hasalmostwipedoutthedifference between the two. Finally, those still unvaccinated or partiallyvaccinated have been getting a more severe disease,” he said.

1st +ve Indian wants to return to Wuhan

 1st +ve Indian wants to return to Wuhan


Preetu.Nair@timesgroup.com

30.01.2022

Kochi: A young woman from Thrissur was chasing her childhood dream of becoming a doctor at a medical college in Wuhan, like many more from her home state Kerala. Then the unthinkable happened — she became patient one, the first person in India to test positive for Covid detected in the Chinese city. That was two years ago: January 30, 2020.
She has moved on, though. She wants to return to Wuhan to complete her course. “We believe Covid is manageable now. What is uncertain is my daughter’s career,” said her father. 

Those were uncertain times too when she dashed out of Wuhan as the virus exploded on humanity. She reached home about a week before she tested positive, narrowly escaping harsh Chinese measures as Wuhan and international borders were sealed to stop the infection from slipping out into the community.

She doesn’t want to recall her ordeal, or be reminded of it. In the past two years, she was studying remotely from home. She completed her MBBS course online last December and passed the exams. But she has to go back to her college because Chinese  rules mandate that MBBS students do a 52-week in-person internship — equivalent to a house surgeon — in hospitals after final year of graduation. It’s a must to get the degree.

The college in Wuhan has been off-limits, though. The pandemic has been peaking, plateauing and plummeting, but not ending.

“We request the Centre to take up the matter with the Chinese authorities for the sake of Indian medical students studying there,” her father said.

‘Cases declining, but maintain vigil’

New Delhi: Even as the number of Covid-19 cases is showing early indications of a declining trend, the central government on Saturday cautioned against complacency. There’s still a need to be vigilant and not lower the guard even though active Covid cases in most states and positivity rate have shown a fall in the last two weeks, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a meeting on Saturday. Health ministers and officials from Odisha, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and WB were present in the meet.

TNN

MG University staff arrested for accepting bribe

 MG University staff arrested for accepting bribe



TIMES NEWS NETWORK
30.01.2022

Kottayam: The vigilance and anti-corruption bureau officials on Saturday arrested an employee of MG University while she was allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 15,000 from a student. C J Elsy, who is working as a university assistant in the MBA section of the examination wing of the university, was the person arrested, said vigilance officials.

Elsy, a Pathanamthitta native, allegedly accepted bribe from a girl student who had passed MBA from a college in Ettumanur for issuing her provisional certificate. The student had studied in the 2014-16 batch. Elsy had allegedly demanded Rs 50,000 from the student for the speedy issuance of the certificate. When the student informed her that she could not bear the huge amount, Elsy agreed to reduce the bribe amount to Rs 30,000. As per the agreement, Elsy asked the student to pay Rs15,000 on Saturday and the remaining amount after a week. The student informed this to vigilance eastern range SP V G Vinod Kumar. Based on his directive, DSP of vigilance Kottayam unit Viswanathan and team arrested Elsy around 2pm on Saturday . The accused will be presented before the vigilance court in Thiruvananthapuram.

The student did her course in 2014-16 and had cleared the arrears in seven subjects later. She had appeared for a mercy chance in the remaining one paper in September last year. When the student had contacted the staff over phone to inquire about the results of the exam, Elsy had allegedly lied to her that she had failed in the exam and took Rs 1. 25 lakh from her in instalments by promising her that she would issue her a provisional certificate and consolidated mark list. 

However, when the result was published, the student passed in the paper by scoring 57 out of 100. It was then that she realized that she was being cheated. All the payments were made through the university bank account of Elsy.

Meanwhile, M G University employees union general secretary N Mahesh said that a detailed probe should be done to find if the accused had got the support from anybody else. The MGU Registrar has suspended Elsy from job pending an inquiry.



PG Medical rank list published

 

PG Medical rank list published



TIMES NEWS NETWORK

30.01.2022

Thiruvananthapuram: The rank list of PG Medical course 2021 has been published. The list can be accessed on the website of Commissioner for Entrance Examinations — www. cee. kerala. gov. in.

Category wise lists have also been published on the website based on scrutiny of the documents submitted, an official statement said here on Saturday.

The rank list of service quota candidates will be published later. The facility for option registration has been extended to Saturday (January 30) till 5pm for all applicants.

During this period, there will be facility to register fresh options/rearrange registered options based on the categories (Eg: NRI, minority etc. ,) allotted as per the category list and rank list published.

Love, sex and films drove searches online last year

 Love, sex and films drove searches online last year


U.Sudhakarreddy@timesgroup.com


30.01.2022

Hyderabad: Search trend analysis on Google has revealed that people in Telangana looked up for love, sex and gold a lot in the second year of the pandemic.

While a cross the country, people se arched ‘sexy’ (in Hindi), netizens in Telangana looked up for ‘sex’ (in Telugu) in 2021, enough to take both words in the list of top Google searches. ‘Love’ also featured in Telangana’s top list.

However, pirated websites trumped all of the above searches. People in Telangana searched for film piracy websites for Tollywood releases. Most new Tollywood movies were leaked on these sites, which are p opular in other parts of the country too. “Piracy is a criminal offence and causes huge loss to the film industry. Small and medium budget films are the worst hit. Police and agencies concerned m ust keep it in check,” Tollywood fil m director N Shankar told TOI.

Trends indicate that in  Telangana, like the rest of India, there is a large consumption of video content.

Another top search in Telangana, rather unsurpr isingly, was ‘gold rate today’. While the country searched for ‘satta’ (gambling) to try and make some quick money, netizens in Telangana typed ‘matka’ in the search window a lot.

‘CoWin app’ and ‘Covid-19 vaccine’ were also the top queries from Telangana. Many in Telangana and across the country also looked for ‘cricket’.

Top searches are terms that are most frequently searched within the chosen region. Social media platforms were also popular searches.

CBSE urged to end suspense on results

 

CBSE urged to end suspense on results



TIMES NEWS NETWORK

30.012022

New Delhi: Students of classes X and XII and their parents have urged Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to clear the air on term 1 results — whether they will be declared now or with term 2.

“There is a lot of anxiety among children about the result, as it was the first time they were appearing for a different kind of exam. Releasing the result at this stage will help them work towards the second term in a better manner,” said Amit Chaudhary, whose son studies in Class XII
Conflicting reports about the results date hasn’t helped. One such “circu-lar”, which talked of how students could access results, was termed “fake” by the board on Tuesday.

“Every day we keep reading on different platforms that results will be declared. It would have been best had CBSE come up with a schedule and stated when the results will be declared,” said Prashant, whose daughter is a Class XII student.

There are some students who feel results should be declared after the term 2 exam. “Should we be worried about our term 1 result or term 2 preparation? Our batch has already suffered enough,” Manish Jain, who studies in a private school, said.

HC denies custody of kids to mom because of legal battle

 HC denies custody of kids to mom because of legal battle


30.01.2022

Chennai: A mother is the natural guardian of minor children unless proved unable to take good care of her child. But in a rare case, the Madras high court has denied such a natural right to a mother who chose to live with her ‘paramour’and‘harassed’ her husband who attempted to get her back to the family, reports Sureshkumar K.

“This court would wish to clarify that refusal to grant interim custody to the mother is not meant to be little her motherhood or slighting the umbilical relationship of the mother and her minor daughters. But what stood in the way was the apparent hysterical disposition manifested in her interminable acrimonious legal pursuit in the matter,” Justice V Parthiban said. Retrieving the estranged conjugal relationship appears to be not pragmatic in the circumstances of the case. But enragement on that account for whatever reasons, need not be nurtured or harboured and carried tothefuture,under mining the parentalbond,if she truly cares for the welfare of her minor daughters, the court added.

“The petitioner (mother) can think of taking professional advice and work towards a  mutually acceptable settlement, instead of playing the legal games of one-upmanship. The situation could still be reversed and salvaged. The ball is in her court and not in this court,” the judge said.

The issue pertains to a plea moved by the mother seeking permanent custody of her four-year-old twin daughters. Since her husband was employed in the US, the twins were born there and obtained US citizenship.

In 2013, when they came back to India, she joined a law school in Chennai to pursue a law degree. Subsequently, she developed a relationship with her college mate who was the son of an influential political leader of the then ruling party. 

At one point of time, she separated from her husband and started living with her boyfriend. As the attempts made by the husband to reunite her with the family went in vain, he moved the family court for divorce. Estranged, she filed multiple litigations against the husband including the present plea for custody of the children. However, the court permitted the mother to contact her daughters through video call during weekends.

Sexual offence not personal in nature: HC

 Sexual offence not personal in nature: HC


30.01.2022

New Delhi: Delhi High Court has refused to quash an FIR against a man accused of stalking, sexual harassment and circulating morphed pictures of a girl in spite of a settlement between the parties, saying that the offences are not personal in nature but affected the society and are a serious assault on the girl's fundamental right to live with dignity.

Justice Mukta Gupta noted that the circulation of the girl's morphed photographs on an online platform resulted in several people asking for “illegal favours” from her on payment of money and that the FIR cannot be quashed merely on the ground showing repentance.

The judge said that considering the nature of the allegations, it was not a fit case for quashing the FIR on the basis of a compromise.

“Considering the fact that the petitioner not only used to stop, harass, stalk and threaten the complainant but also circulated her morphed photographs on V-Chat, resulting in number of people visiting her place asking about illegal favours from her on payment of money, the alleged offences committed by the petitioner against the complainant cannot be said to be a personal dispute not affecting the society at all,” the court said in its recent order.

“The nature of offence committed by the petitioner against the complainant cannot be quashed merely on the ground that the petitioner now shows repentance as the offence committed is a serious assault on the fundamental right to live with dignity of the complainant,” it added.

The FIR in the present case was filed for the alleged commission of offences under sections 354A (sexual harass- ment)/354D (stalking) /341 (wrongful restraint)/506 (criminal intimidation)/507 (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication)/509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the mo- destyof awoman)of theIndian PenalCode. The complainant alleged in the FIR that thepetitioner was a fellow student in her coaching centre who followed her and “offered her friendship” which she refused.

The petitioner then started pressuring her to become friends with him which subsequently lead to her leaving the coaching centre.

It was claimed that even when the complainant began working as a mehendi artist, the petitioner used to stop her on the way to work and thus her mother spoke to the petitioner's parents who assured that no such incident would take place in future.

The FIR further alleged that after 15 days of the complainant's marriage, the petitioner called from an unknown number and told her husband that the complainant was not a good girl and he should leave her.

PTI

No respite: Bhopal shivers at 5°C for 5th day in a row

 No respite: Bhopal shivers at 5°C for 5th day in a row

Winter Onslaught Continues, Panchmarhi Ice Cold at 0°


TIMES NEWS NETWORK

30.01.2022

Bhopal: For the first time in many years, the state capital has witnessed a severe cold wave with temperature consistently hovering around 5 degrees Celsius for five days. Mercury dropped to zero degrees in Pachmarhi.

Met officials said, there is no system or moisture incursion in the state, but the state would face the impact of western disturbance around February 2. A few places may also witness light rain due to this impact.
Day temperature in Bhopal on Saturday was recorded at 25. 4 degrees Celsius, a degree less than normal mark, while night tempera-ture in the city was 5. 6 degrees Celsius, six degrees less than normal mark. Wind direction in the city was north westerly and average wind speed was 12 kilometres per hour. Lowest temperature in the state in plains was recorded at 3 degrees Celsius in Naogaon and Umaria while hill station Pachmarhi shivered at 0. 4 degree Celsius.

Severe cold wave was witnessed at Khandwa, Raisen while cold wave was in Bhopal, Betul, Gwalior, Guna, Khargone, Ratlam, Chhindwara, Jabalpur Khajuraho, Mandla, Naogaon, Rewa, Umaria, Pachmarhi and Malanjkhand. Many places in the state had severe cold day and cold day.
In the forecast for Bhopal on Sunday the meteorological officials said, day and night temperature in the city would be 23 degrees Celsius and 8 degrees Celsius, respectively, while average wind speed will be14 kmph.
Met has issued a warning of cold wave in many places.

37-year-old dentist raped on marriage lure

 WOMEN UNDER ATTACK

37-year-old dentist raped on marriage lure



TIMES N EWS N ETWORK

30.01.2022

Bhopal: A 33-year-old fruit vendor was booked for allegedly raping a 37-year-old dentist on the promise of marriage. The dentist who married to a Patna based man separated from her husband a year after their marriage.

The woman alleged that she has been living in the city with her son at her parent’s place and the accused was raping her for the last three years. When the woman pressured him to marry her, the accused refused and left abusing her. Subsequently, the woman reported the matter to Jehangirabad police. Acting on her complaint police registered a rape case against the accused on Friday and started investigations.

Investigation officer SI Riddhi Sharma said that the survivor, is a dentist but does not practice. In 2017 she came in contact with accused Mohammed Javed, 33, who is a fruit vendor in Jehangirabad.

The accused lured her in his trap and befriended her. In 2018, he called her to meet at his place in Jehangirabad saying that he loved her and would take care of her son. When she went to meet him, the accused raped her on the promise of marriage and repeatedly raped her since then.

After protests, SBI withdraws circular delaying joining of pregnant women

 After protests, SBI withdraws circular delaying joining of pregnant women




TIMES NEWS NETWORK

30.01.2022

Mumbai: State Bank of India has said that it has decided to keep its revised instructions, regarding joining letters forpregnant women candidates, in abeyance. This follows protests from politicians, women’s rights bodies and a general outcry in social media over the bank’s circular restricting granting of joining letters to women candidates who are over three months’ pregnant. 

 Swati Maliwal,chairperson, Delhi Commission for Women, taking suo moto cognizance of reports on the new guidelines, issued a notice to the chairman of State Bank of India against  its December 31 circular, which said that women who were over three months’ pregnant would be considered temporarily unfit and would not be given immediate joining before delivery. 

On Saturday, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi wrote to Nirmala Sitharaman and the SBI chairman, urging them to recall the revised guidelines. She pointed out that the extant guidelines that were brought forward in 2009 allowed the appointment of candidates up to six months of pregnancy but have now been revised. She highlighted the broader issue of the drop in female participation in the workforce. “Such regressive and sexist guidelines will exacerbate the exclusion of women and inequality faced by them,” she said.

“SBI has recently reviewed the various fitness standards for recruitment in the bank, including norms for pregnant women candidates. The revised guidelines were intended to provide clarity on various health parameters where instructions were not clear or were very old,” the bank said. It added that in some sections of the media, the revision in norms in this regard has been interpreted as discriminatory against women.

“SBI has always been proactive towards the care and empowerment of its women employees who now constitute around 25% of our workforce. During the COVID period, as per government instructions, pregnant women employees were exempted from attending office and allowed to work from home,” the bank said.



NEWS TODAY 22.04.2024