NEWS TO DAY 15.09.2024

Arrival can’t wait: Baby boy born inside ambulance 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  15.09.2024 

In a heartwarming turn of events, a pregnant woman delivered her baby boy inside an ambulance while on the way to hospital in Gudibande taluk, 90km away from Bengaluru, on Friday. The incident unfolded when the 108 ambulance service received a call around 8:30am requesting assistance to transport a woman in labour from Doddanancherlu village to the nearest hospital. Nurse Shanthi, who was part of the ambulance crew, along with driver Maruthi, pro mptly responded to the call. As they reached the village, the woman was already experiencing intense labour pains, and the team quickly took steps to transport her to the hospital. However, as the ambulance navigated the rural roads, the baby’s arrival could not wait. Without wasting any time, Shanthi swung into action and assisted in delivering the baby inside the ambulance. The baby was healthy and weighed around 2kg. Following this, the mother and the infant were shifted to the hospital.

KIC slaps record ₹3.2 crore as penalties on govt officials

KIC slaps record ₹3.2 crore as penalties on govt officials 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 15.09.2024 

Bengaluru : The Karnataka Information Commission (KIC) has set a record by imposing the highest penalties in the country while efficiently disposing of Right to Information (RTI) appeals: In the last two-and-a-half years, the commission’s 10 benches have concluded 1,273 cases and imposed a total penalty of Rs 3.2 crore!

According to the RTI Act, the commission can punish any public official who denies information or provides misleading information with a penalty of Rs 250 per day (not exceeding Rs 25,000). Many RTI applicants, dissatisfied with delays or lack of information file appeals with the KIC for review. Unlike other states where the commission has either become defunct or runs a low-key operation, KIC has chosen not to allow accumulation of appeals. 

Speaking to STOI, incharge state chief information commissioner HC Sathyan said: “We prioritized the swift resolution of pen ding appeals and the imposition of penalties on erring parties. The motive is to ensure that officials provide information to public, thereby ensuring transparency and accountability in administration.” Interestingly, Sathyan tops the list of information commissioners regarding disposal of cases and imposition of penalties. He handled 805 cases (46.7% of the total) and imposed Rs 2.1 crore in penalties, amounting to 68.1% of the total fines. State information commissioner KP Manjunatha, who presides over three benches, resolved 215 cases and imposed penalties totalling Rs 23.7 lakh. Ravindra Gurunath Dhakappa, the state information commissioner for the Kalaburagi bench, imposed penalties of Rs 21.3 lakh and resolved 100 cases, making him the third highest in terms of fines levied. 

Public officials have also been punished for destroying files when sought by applicants. Sathyan himself has ordered inquiry against more than 25 such officials under the Record Keeping Act, 2010. Not just penalising officials, the commission has cracked down applicants who file frivolous petitions or threaten govt officials

Students with lower NEET scores may get preference in R2

Students with lower NEET scores may get preference in R2

Pushpa.Narayan@timesofindia.com 15.09.2024 

Chennai : The state committee for medical admission’s bid to keep the counselling process simple and quick may end up giving medical college seats to candidates with lower NEET scores. While authorities say this is the only way to address the multiple upgradation requests from those allotted seats in the first round, and the system getting bogged down in an infinite loop, experts say it will undermine inter-se merit and be in violation of Supreme Court orders.

 The state committee, which conducts counselling for the state quota of seats in govt medical colleges and all seats in self-financing medical colleges, has completed admission for round 1 based on NEET and the rule of reservation. As more than 1,000 seats are vacant because students have opted to take “free exit,” some students opted for an upgrade in the second round. If seats in colleges of choice are available, students who opted to upgrade will be accommodated.

This, in turn, will leave a vacancy in their previously chosen institutions. For instance, if a student allotted to Govt Stanley Medical College opts to upgrade to Madras Medical College, the seat in Stanley will be vacant. That’s when the problems arise. The selection committee has told participants that the allotment to this seat will be made in “descending order, not in ascending order.” That is, the next available student who asks for the seat will get it, even if there are students with higher marks waiting for the same seat. “If a student with rank 100 is moved to MMC from Stanley and a student with rank 101 is asking for a seat in Stanley, he or she will get it even if a student with rank 97 or 98 is waiting for the seat,” said a senior official in the state selection committee.

 “I have said it in a simple way; usually, there are multiple requests for an upgrade. The system goes into a loop and reaches a point of an infinite loop. When this happens, the system does not work. There is no allocation of seats. So, we decided to keep programming less complicated,” said a senior official. Students and parents, however, argue that they must look at options to prevent looping. “The  infinite loop is because of infinite options. Students must not be allowed a free exit. 

A student who is allowed to exit must not be allowed to participate in the counselling process. If this happens, upgrades will come down and reduce the risk of infinite looping,” said Raguram R, whose son is awaiting medical admissions this year. Student counsellors such as Manikavel Arumugam point out that allotments based on descending order will violate the Supreme Court mandate. “This will lead to needless litigation again,” he said. “The counselling process must be simple and transparent,” he said.

NEWS TODAY 14.09.2024

 

NMC raises bank guarantee for new medical colleges

NMC raises bank guarantee for new medical colleges

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

Ahmedabad : The National Medical Commission (NMC) has recently announced a significant increase in the performance bank guarantees (PBG) required for establishing new undergraduate and postgraduate medical colleges, applicable from the academic year 2025-26. This marks the first time the commission has implemented a hike and introduced varying PBG amounts based on the number of admission seats, as noted by experts.

 According to a notice issued by the NMC on Sep 2, medi cal colleges seeking to admit 50 MBBS students will need to provide a bank guarantee of Rs 15 crore for a six-year period. Institutions aiming to admit 100 MBBS students will be required to submit a bank guarantee of Rs 20 crore for the same duration. If a college wishes to secure an additional 50 seats, an extra bank guarantee of Rs 5 crore will be necessary. For colleges intending to admit 150 MBBS students, the bank guarantee has been set at Rs 25 crore for the six-year tenure. 

The notice also specifies the rates for postgraduate degrees and higher specialiti es. “For a single PG degree or higher speciality course, the bank guarantee is set at Rs 2 crore for a tenure of four years. Any additional PG degree or higher speciality course will require a bank guarantee of Rs 25 lakh per course seat, also valid for a 4-year tenure.” The increase in bank guarantees is expected to result in an investment of approximately Rs 300 crore to Rs 350 crore for setting up a new medical college, which experts believe will make it nearly impossible for smaller trusts to establish new medical educational institutions. However, they have clarified that this will not lead to any fee increase for students.

NMC’s revised guidelines for MBBS curriculum still has deficiencies, say activists

NMC’s revised guidelines for MBBS curriculum still has deficiencies, say activists

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

NEW DELHI 14.09.2024

The National Medical Commission has reissued the Competency-Based Medical Education Curriculum (CBME-2024) guidelines for MBBS students.

Last month, the NMC withdrew the guidelines following protests by transgender and disability rights groups. The revised version too has come under fire. Activists said the 466-word document had no mention of key terms such as “dignity” and “transgender”. They have now written to all stakeholders demanding immediate revision of the guidelines.

Satendra Singh, a disability rights activist, said while eight hours has been dedicated to “sports” in the two-week foundation course, there is no explicit mention of disability competencies that were mandatory in the 2019 curriculum (seven hours).

Psychiatry continues to refer to “gender identity disorders” and physiology describes sexual differentiation or intersex variations as “abnormalities”. Furthermore, paediatrics fails to address gender incongruence, dysphoria, or non-heterosexual orientations.

He further added that the subjectsfocus solely on the management of “disability” without acknowledging diversity. The revised document has dropped “lesbianism”, “sodomy”, and other such terms from the MBBS syllabus.

In the new syllabus, the medical body has included topics related to the histories of gender, and sexuality-based identities and rights in India, as well as the decriminalisation of adultery and consensual adult homosexual behaviour.

Disability and transgender rights groups have demanded thereintroduction of the mandatory hours on disability competencies, introduce provisions of Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 and the Transgender Persons Protection Act, 2019 in the curriculum of ethics.

Retirement and death gratuity increased by 25% for T.N. govt. staff

Retirement and death gratuity increased by 25% for T.N. govt. staff

The Hindu Bureau

CHENNAI 14.09.2024

The Tamil Nadu government recently increased the maximum limit of death-cum-retirement gratuity (known as DCRG) from ₹20 lakh to ₹25 lakh for its employees. The revision will take retrospective effect from January 1.

A G.O. was issued in this regard on September 6.

The move follows the Centre’s decision to increase the maximum limit of retirement gratuity and death gratuity from ₹20 lakh to ₹25 lakh, in line with the recommendations of the Seventh Central Pay Commission. The increase announced by the Centre was 25% with retrospective effect from January 1.

However, though the State’s revision is applicable to all staff, functionally, only those who get a basic pay of at least ₹81,000 a month would get the retirement or death gratuity, said CPS Abolition Movement State coordinator P. Frederic Engels. Only those who are in Pay Grade 11 or above would be able to receive the enhancement, while the majority of the employees in the old pension scheme would not be eligible, he added.

Commenting on the revision, Mr. Engels said that the Centre and all States except Tamil Nadu were giving gratuity to their employees. Here, those who are under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) do not get gratuity.

“About 38,000 people in the CPS have retired and about 7,000 of them are dead, but they have not received gratuity,” Mr. Engels said, and urged the State government to provide gratuity. Employees who joined service from April 1, 2003, were not eligible for gratuity, he said. He also underlined that decisions on pension need not affect gratuity, as they fell under different Acts and Rules – the Tamil Nadu Pension Rules, 1978 and the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972.

NEWS TODAY 13.09.2024