CBI files case against railway official for swindling staff salary

He diverts Rs. 31.67 lakh to his accounts

In a novel crime, a railway official allegedly diverted the salary of employees who deserted office or resigned from service into his personal accounts.

The accused took advantage of his expertise in computer applications and diverted funds to the tune of Rs. 31.67 lakh.

Based on specific information, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) launched a preliminary enquiry and registered a case against Anil Kumar Meena, Track Maintainer, Ambur, Southern Railway, and his wife Suman Meena.

Investigation revealed that Dakshina Moorthy, Office Superintendent, in the office of the Permanent Way Inspector, Ambur, sought the assistance of Mr. Meena to enter the salary details of employees in the computer for crediting into the respective accounts on the day of disbursal.

He also shared the user name and password of the system.

Taking advantage of this, the accused abused his official position with an ulterior motive to cheat the government and other employees. He strategically picked up the particulars of employees who either absented from work or resigned from service for whom salary was not supposed to be drawn. During 2015-17, he made entries as if they were entitled for pay and diverted the funds to his personal bank accounts, including that of his wife.

The CBI found that Mr. Meena was in the habit of manipulating the payroll of other employees and investigation so far has revealed that he had diverted the salary of 17 employees to the tune of Rs. 31.67 lakh into his personal bank accounts causing a wrongful loss to the Southern Railway.

Investigators perused the bank account details of Mr. Meena and his wife and established the diversion of funds from the railway systems, sources in the agency said.

Another

case

On Tuesday, the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Bureau had booked another railway employee Franklin Joseph of Salem Division on charges of cheating the Central and State Governments by diverting funds to the tune of Rs. 26.65 lakh deducted as professional tax from staff into his personal bank accounts.

The allegation is that the accused deducted professional tax from the salary of other employees, and instead of crediting the same into the account of the State Government, he diverted the funds into his bank account and those of his associates.

A year on, cloud over NEET impact

Minority institutions worried over surrendering seats to be filled through govt. counselling

A year after the National-Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test (NEET) was made mandatory for admission to MBBS, private medical colleges and universities in Tamil Nadu, that have implemented NEET for admissions in 2016, have expressed concerns about the process. Minority institutions, in particular, are especially apprehensive about losing privileges attached to their special status when all seats will have to be allocated through government counselling.

Sunil Chandy, director of Christian Medical College Vellore, has written to alumni informing them that the college would have to surrender all its seats to be filled with government counselling. He goes on to assure them that the institution would take all steps to preserve its autonomy and is expecting “a long drawn and expensive legal battle.”

While government medical colleges in Tamil Nadu sought and got exemption from conducting UG admissions through NEET, private medical institutions had to comply. Last year, CMC filled all the 100 MBBS seats with NEET-qualified candidates, said a senior college authority.

“Undergraduate admissions were carried out exactly in the way that the Supreme Court had said in its verdict. All candidates selected had cleared NEET. We followed the rules to the letter,” he said.

The institution, on receiving applications from NEET-qualified candidates, selected students based on certain criteria such as Church sponsorships. However, what seems to have upset the apple cart is the Centre’s recent notification that all seats would be filled through common counselling.

This year, with the college’s applications for MBBS being put out on its website, the official said that as of now, they have decided to go by last year’s system, and accept applications from students who qualify through NEET. The future of medical admissions for the year is rather murky in Tamil Nadu, with no clarity on what process will be followed. The State is awaiting Presidential sanction for a couple of Bills that were passed in the Assembly, seeking to conduct medical and dental admissions (UG and PG) as it has been doing thus far. In Tamil Nadu, there are 16 self-financing medical colleges that contribute to the State pool of seats; five of them have minority status and provide 350 seats to the government quota, to be filled through single window counselling.

‘Quota norms flouted’

However, there are voices from the other side as well. A former medical education official says institutions have manipulated the minority status with impunity. Institutions claim the status but do not adhere to reservation norms, he adds. While the State follows the reservation system even for seats surrendered by the minority institutions, the mode of admission to management quota seats is not monitored, admit medical education officials. There is no record of whether the State’s reservation norms are followed while filling up management quota seats.

Colleges, however, say they manage to fill the minority quota seats in the management quota easily, but only 3% of the total number of seats go to students from the minority community, on an average. “Since our colleges cater to minority, students from these communities apply in larger numbers and we managed to fulfil the reservation criterion last year even with NEET,” says S. Peter of Madha Medical College, also a minority institution.

“The government should permit admission under the management quota as it is difficult to fill all seats through NEET,” he says, adding, “We want the government to compensate us as it does every student who joins government medical college. It is impossible to charge very low fees with the infrastructure we have created for our students.” Only that would make it viable for private colleges to continue.

Mar 16 2017 : The Times of India (Chennai)

Security flaw found in WhatsApp, Telegram

San Francisco: AFP





A computer security firm on Wednesday revealed a flaw that could let hackers break into WhatsApp or Telegram messaging accounts using the very encryption intended to protect messages.Check Point Software Technologies said that it alerted Telegram and Facebook-owned WhatsApp last week, waiting until the vulnerability was patched before making it public.

Check Point did not specify how many messaging accounts were at risk, but did say the flaw posed a danger to “hundreds of millions“ of users accessing the messaging platform from web browsers in computers, as opposed to mobile applications.“This new vulnerability put hundreds of millions of WhatsApp Web and Telegram Web users at risk of complete account take over,“ Check Point head of product vulnerability Oded Vanunu said in a release. “By simply sending an innocent looking photo, an attacker could gain control over the account, access message history , all photos that were ever shared, and send messages on behalf of the user.“

The vulnerability made it possible for an attacker to booby-trap a digital image with malicious code that could spring into action after the picture is clicked on for viewing. The code could then hijack an account, and spread itself like a virus by sending infected messages to those listed as contacts.

Mar 16 2017 : The Times of India (Chennai)

RAY OF HOPE - Nano eye implant may restore vision
Los Angeles:

PTI

Scientists have developed a new eye implant that may help restore vision in millions of people worldwide.

According to researchers from University of California, San Diego, and the US-based startup Nanovision Biosciences, the new prosthesis relies on two groundbreaking technologies. One, the implant has been made with the help of arrays of silicon nanowires that sense light and electrically stimulate the retina. The nanowires give the prosthesis higher resolution than anything achieved by other devices -closer to the dense spacing of photoreceptors in the human retina.

The other breakthrough, they said, is a wireless device that can transmit power and data to the nanowires over the same wireless link at record speed and energy efficiency.

The technology could help tens of millions of people worldwide suffering from neurodegenerative diseases that affect eyesight, including macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa and loss of vision due to diabetes. The performance of current retinal prostheses to help the blind regain functional vision is still limited. According to the researchers, one of the main differences between their prototype and existing retinal prostheses is that the new system does not require a vision sensor outside of the eye to capture a visual scene and then transform it into alternating signals to sequentially stimulate retinal neurons.

Mar 16 2017 : The Times of India (Chennai)

32 foreign tourists travelling as `sr citizens' in Shatabdi fined

Arvind Chauhan

Agra:





In what could arguably be the first such instance of its kind, railway officials caught 32 foreign tourists allegedly travelling on senior citizens' concessional tickets on the New Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi Express. The facility is available only to Indian citizens.

In a special drive on Tuesday and Wednesday , a joint team of travelling ticket examiners Virender Singh and Manoj Nigam, and train superintendent S K Guntey found and challaned the tourists, charging them a total of `65,670 for using the concessional tickets while travelling between Agra and Jhansi.

Speaking to TOI, divisional commercial manager of Jhansi, Girish Kanchan said, “The onboard team of New Delhi-Bhopal Shatabdi Express caught 18 passengers on Tuesday who were traveling from Habibganj to Agra in chair coaches 3 and 4, while on Wednesday 14 passengers who boarded the train from Agra to Jhansi on the chair and executive coaches were fined.“ “The passengers were cooperative, after the officials explained the rules of the railways to them. It appears they were duped by their local tour operator and agents. The tourists readily agreed to pay the fines,“ Kanchan said.

“A probe has been initiated against the tour operator and agents who booked their tickets,“ he said. The nationalities of the passengers has been withheld for the time being while investigations into the matter are being conducted.Officials said that the role of railway staff in helping the tour operators get such concessional tickets is also being probed.

According to the railways, concessional tickets for foreign and NRI senior citizen passengers were revoked from September 29, 2016.

On condition of anonymity, a railway official said, “The foreign passengers who were fined were part of two different groups who were been handled by local tour operators and agents. In the initial investigation we found that they had been misinformed and had been charged hefty commissions for each ticket which was invalid.“

“Most of the foreigners who take help of local agents and tour operators are not aware of new railway rules.For the last several months, we had been noticing that tour operators were duping both railways and foreign tourists. In one such case we found that the actual cost of the ticket for a foreign national had been charged from the passenger, and the amount had been printed on the e-ticket, but in the railway record, it was shown that the passenger had opted for a concessional ticket, something for which he was not eligible. These are issues to be investigated. The special drive might help create awareness among the passengers,“ the official added.

Probe ordered into arrest of Chennai prof by Lucknow police

Pathikrit Chakraborty

Lucknow TNN





A probe has been ordered into arrest of a senior Madras Medical College professor Dr M Sudheer, who is now lodged in Lucknow jail.

The probe was ordered by DIG Range Lucknow, Pravin Kumar Tripathi in view of Tamil Nadu government doctors' association going on strike in Chennai demanding a fair probe .

The doctors have been on indefinite strike after the arrest of M Sudheer by the Lucknow police in a money laun dering case. The kin of the doctor met the DIG here on Wednesday .

SSP Lucknow Manzil Saini said she had told TransGomti SP Durgesh Kumar to conduct another inquiry and that she would speak to the investigating officer of Aliganj police station. “If anybody is found guilty , action will be taken against the policeman concerned,“ she told TOI. She did not comment when TOI asked her why the FIR was registered in Aliganj police station.SSP said some policemen had picked up the doctor without consulting any senior official.

Dr M Sudheer (57), resi dent of TTK Salai, Alwarpet, Chennai, is a professor of orthopaedics at the Institute of Orthopaedics and Traumatology of the Madras Medical College. In 2011, he had borrowed `20 lakh from a local money-lender M Kamraj for building a house at interest rate of 5 % per annum.

The lender had taken some blank cheques signed by the doctor as security but did not return them even after total repayment of loan in 2016. More over, the lender implicated the professor and stated wrongly that he had lent `40 lakh. The lender threatened professor, who lodged an FIR registered against M Kamraj at Tenyamet police station in Chennai, on May 12, 2016. The moneylender remained unfazed and continued to demand more cash and transferred the blank cheques to his aides in Uttar Pradesh, Sarfaraz Ahmad, Piyush Mishra and Sachin Tandon. His UP counterparts manipulated the blank cheques and filed a case against the doctor at Aliganj, police station of Lucknow.

Mar 16 2017 : The Times of India (Chennai)

DOB cannot be modified after Class X: HC

Chennai: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





Any correction in the date of birth, name or initial of a person has to be done before the person completes SSLC, and a criminal court has no jurisdiction to pass orders asking officials to make such corrections on certificates, Madras high court has said. Justice N Kirubakaran passed the order while dismissing a petition filed by B Karunakaran of Villupuram district. The petitioner had sought a direction to the state board of school of examination to alter his date of birth from January 19, 1989 to January 16, 1992.

Karunakaran completed his SSLC in 2006 and higher secondary education in 2009.While his duplicate transfer certificate obtained from the school showed his date of birth as January 16, 1992, the SSLC and higher secondary certificates showed it as January 19, 1989.

Hence, he filed a petition before district munsif cum judicial magistrate for issuance of birth certificate with January 16, 1992 as his date of birth. After obtaining a favourable order, he furnished it to officials and got them altered. In 2014, he made a representation to the board to correct the date of birth in the mark sheets too. As it was not considered, he filed the current petition.

However, Justice Kiruba karan dismissed the petition saying as per Rule 5 of the Secondary School Leaving Certificate Rules, any correction in the date of birth, name or initial has to be made before completing the SSLC examination.

“The criminal court has passed an order on October 4, 2010 directing the board to issue birth certificate as if he was born on January 16, 1992.The criminal court has got no jurisdiction to direct the board to issue such certificate. If that is going to be encouraged, anybody can approach the criminal court and correct the date of birth according to their convenience. Other than the criminal court order, there is no record available to correct the date of birth of the petitioner as January 16, 1992. Even otherwise, Rule 5 of the Secondary School Leaving Certificate Rules is a bar for making correction in the school records.“