CBI court convicts railway engineer over graft charges

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 
 
07.05.2018

A CBI court convicted a Southern Railways senior section engineer on graft charges and sentenced him to two years of rigorous imprisonment and fined him ₹15, 000.

A special CBI team arrested Thota T Shivakumar for demanding ₹15,000 from a railway contractor to record data of projects the contractor executed in 2014.

The railways in December 2012 awarded L G Ravi a tender, estimated at ₹97 lakh, for work on the Chennai-Gudur section. The project involved the laying of points and crossings between Ennore and Athipattu Pudhunagar.

Under the agreement, the railways would provide raw material and Ravi would hire and pay the workers for the project, which was to be completed by February 2013. But the railways extended the contract till May 2014 due to delays in procuring raw material. Ravi approached the deputy chief engineer requesting to release the payment for work done and to close the agreement. Ravi met officials, including T Shivakumar, at Athipattu station on March 4, 2014.

The CBI said the deputy chief engineer directed Shivakumar to record the measurements of work Ravi had done. When Ravi met Shivakumar at his office two days later, the engineer demanded a bribe of ₹15,000. Ravi filed a complaint and the CBI set a trap to catch the engineer.

On March 7, Ravi met Shivakumar at My Lady Park near Park Town and handed over the bribe. A CBI team caught Shivakumar in the act and booked him under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

Principal special judge for CBI cases A Thiruneelaprasad pronounced Shivakumar guilty after hearing the arguments and going through the evidence. He sentenced the engineer to two years of rigorous imprisonment.

NEET 2018

State handed a raw deal by CBSE again

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai:   07.05.2018
Tamil Nadu has always been given a raw deal by the CBSE as far as the NEET examinations are concerned. The board has only accentuated its callousness by allotting exam centres at other states for examinees from Tamil Nadu.

NEET-PG 2015 scheduled from December 1 to 6 was affected due to the Chennai floods. Those who were supposed to take the exam on December 2 were asked to take it at Nagpur, Pune and other cities outside the state even before the candidates could recover from the damage caused by the floods.

Many candidates, particularly those working in government hospitals, were unable to attend the exam as leave was not granted to them post floods.

Only six centres were set up in Chennai for candidates across the state and despite protests to create additional centres at Madurai, Trichy and Tirunelveli, there was no response from the government.

In 2016, candidates from the state wanted CBSE to postpone NEET-PG as there was a cyclone alert. However, CBSE refused and when applicants managed to reach the exam centre despite difficulties caused by Cyclone Vardah, the board cancelled the exams at the last moment. The exam was postponed to the very next day and that too got cancelled due to power failure.

Candidates again were asked to write the tests at centres set up outside the state.

G R Ravindran from Doctors’ Association for Social Equality (DASE) said it is not incidental but intentional. “This (NEET-UG 2018) is a written test and not a computer-based exam. So, CBSE did not create additional centres despite knowing that there has been an increase in enrolment from the state,” he said

Woman falls asleep with headphones, electrocuted

TIMES NEWS NETWORK


Chennai: 07.05.2018

A 46-year-old woman, hooked up to headphones, was electrocuted in Kanathur on Sunday after falling asleep while listening to music.

The police identified the woman as Fathima.

“Fathima’s husband Abdul Kalam saw her in bed and tried to wake her up but in vain,” a police officer said. “He was alarmed when she showed no sign of life and rushed her to a nearby hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead on arrival.”

Hospital officials informed the Kanathur police, who sent the body to Government Royapettah Hospital for autopsy.

The Kanathur police registered a case under CrPC Section 174 (unnatural death).

Doctors at the hospital confirmed that electrocution was the cause of death .

“The woman had gone to sleep while wearing the headphones on Saturday night,” the officer said, adding that a short-circuit may have caused the electrocution.

Student gets ₹34K compensation for faulty ₹8k mobile

Srikkanth.D@timesgroup.com

Chennai: 07.05.2018

A tardy response to acustomer’s complaint about a faulty cellphone and his refund request has cost e-commerce website Amazon nearly four times the initial expense. District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (Chennai north) has directed Amazon and Delhi-based Cloudtail India to pay ₹34,000 to a chartered accountancy student for delivering a faulty mobile phone.

In 2015, V Mohit of Korattur had ordered a cellphone costing ₹8,999 through the website in 2015. But the handset delivered on June 7, 2015, was a defective one. When Mohit sought a refund, though the phone was collected a week later, the company failed to refund the money. Following this, he approached the consumer forum. While an Amazon customer executive informed Mohit that the cost of the mobile would be credited to his account, no money was credited until the end of July.

The complainant contended that the acts of the website and the seller were tantamount to unfair trade practice and deficiency in service. Further, he had purchased the cellphone for day to day activities and could not use it till after two months, when he purchased another handset at a cost of ₹14,999. The complainant stated that he was put through mental agony.

Both the opposite parties had contended that the customer could seek refund of money only through a civil court and that the forum had no jurisdiction to entertain the complaint.

However,the consumer forum bench comprising president K Jayabalan and member M Uyiroli Kannan ruled in favour of the Mohit recently and asked the website and seller to refund the cost of the phone and pay extra as compensation. The companies were directed to refund the cost of the mobile phone and an additional sum of ₹20,000 for mental agony and ₹5,000 for litigation expenses.

Aspirants, parents must pass first test: Comply with hard rules

Vinayashree.J@timesgroup.com 07.05.2018

As a parent scurried around asking for a glue stick to paste his daughter’s photo on her admit card, another grabbed a pair of scissors to cut sacred threads on her daughter’s wrist. A student rushed out of the hall to get her parent sign the hall ticket, while a group of people frantically searched for a candidate’s gold stud that fell to the ground while being removed. Sunday’s NEET seemed to be a test not just for students but also for their parents as they tried to comply with CBSE’s rules.

Amidst the sweltering heat, girls let their hair loose as they removed their rubber bands and clips. Jewellery, shoes, hijab and burkha, belts, all were barred, sacred threads on hands cut and handkerchiefs grabbed even if it meant runny noses. With many students forgetting to get a passport size photo, several schools arranged for photographers inside the premises, some of them charging ₹30 to ₹50.

Snega Priya, a candidate, said: “I was devastated that I hadn’t brought an extra photograph and asked my mother to get a copy from my hall ticket. I had to wait till she returned by 9.20am and so it was a rushed entry,” she said.

As students wrote the three-hour test, scores of parents waited outside or in the adjacent streets, and not unprepared – armed with lunch boxes, newspapers and coffee flasks, parents spread out on pavements and apartment entrances ready to sit out in the sun. Heavy police security was deployed around exam centres and special parking allowance was also given.

Azhagappan, a parent, felt that the dress code was “too much” for an exam. “Agreed they are taking precautions against malpractices, but the way they do it only causes chaos. Students become anxious and over-stressed right before the exam. What if they go blank during the exam after so much hard work. A systematic and calm checking process benefits all,” he said.

(With inputs from Gayatri V)


LET LOOSE: A woman removes her daughter’s hairpins before she enters a NEET centre at DAV Public School in Velachery


AT YOUR SERVICE: A police officer helps out a girl at an exam centre in Velachery



FANCY BUTTONS STUDDED ON MY TOP WERE CUT ALONG WITH THE HOLY THREAD AROUND MY WAIST. IT IS THOUGHTLESS TO ASK US TO REMOVE EARRINGS, CHAINS AND BUTTONS... THE PUBLIC INSPECTION OUTSIDE THE EXAM HALL INCREASED OUR ANXIETY

SNEGAPRIYA S 



I FELT EMBARRASSED WHEN THEY ASKED ME TO REMOVE MY SHAWL AND ASKED US TO WEAR PANTS INSTEAD OF SALWAR. THAT WAS EMBARRASSING AND COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY. THERE’S NOTHING WE COULD HIDE IN OUR SHAWLS

T SANGEETHA


CHECKING IS REQUIRED AND THERE’S NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT IF YOU FOLLOW THE RULES. PEOPLE HAVE TO LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO BE SURE THAT STUDENTS DON’T GET INTO THE FIELD THROUGH MALPRACTICES

C P PRAJEET


WHILE THE CHECKING AND DRESS CODE ARE NECESSARY, THE SYSTEM OF CARRYING IT OUT COULD BE BETTER. CHECKING IS NECESSARY BECAUSE TECHNOLOGY HAS DEVELOPED AND STUDENTS CAN CHEAT IN MANY WAYS. IT CAN BE CONTROLLED ONLY IF THERE ARE RULES | JANANI M

Experts see higher cutoff, increased competition

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com 
 
07.05.2018

Competition for MBBS and BDS admissions is set to get tougher this year as experts predict a rise in overall qualifying scores or the minimum cut-off score.

With many CBSE students finding the test easy, as many of the test questions were from NCERT books, it is going to be difficult for their state board counterparts when it comes to the 15% all India quota seats.

Every year, CBSE, along with results, also releases cutoff scores in the form of percentile for different categories. For example, in 2017, 50th percentile was declared to be the qualifying percentile for the unreserved category. The corresponding cut-off score for the 50th percentile was 131. Only those who had scored 131 or above were declared eligible, and an all India rank was given to those candidates.

“After analysing available data, we noted that there has been an increase in overall enrolment and many found the paper easy,” said Jayaprakah Gandhi, educational consultant.

“We estimate the cut-off for unreserved category to increase from 131 to 135-140 this year,” said educational consultant Moorthy Selvakumaran. “The qualifying score for securing an admission under the all-India quota might also increase from 585 to 610. Students from Tamil Nadu may find it difficult to get MBBS/BDS seats under this quota and CBSE students would continue to dominate this counselling,” he added.

D Devaraj, a physics teacher from a private coaching centre in Chennai, said, “For admissions to TN colleges, cut-offs for the open category is expected to increase as students were better prepared this time. Many had joined coaching classes much earlier.”

SNIP, STRIP & MAKE THEM CRY, THEY’RE OUR FUTURE DOCS...

Most Experts, Many Students Say Stringent Frisking Unwarranted
Officials Blame Lack Of Coordination With State
TN Aspirants Feel Coaching Started Too Late
So Seem To Say Authorities Who Make Frisking Of NEET Aspirants A Public Spectacle

Srikkanth.D@timesgroup.com 07.05.2018

Buttons ripped off, sacred threads cut, burkhas removed, shoes taken off and ear drums screened as if to clean wax — no, these are not stringent checks by airport customs to catch drug and gold smugglers, but frisking of students at NEET centres across the state in broad daylight, minutes before they were to write an exam.

No other prominent all-India examination puts aspirants through such a tedious process on the pretext of ‘taking precautions’. Such measures are unheard of in the civil services examinations that the Union Public Service Commission conducts or the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main that CBSE holds. 

Last year, a trainee IPS officer sneaked in high-end gadgets for the CSE mains examination at a centre in Chennai. Contrastingly, the same year, a NEET aspirant in Kerala was asked to remove her brassiere at an examination centre.

While the lax in security that allowed the trainee police officer to indulge in malpractice was a wake-up call, aspirants and experts said the way in which NEET exams were conducted was unwarranted.

CBSE officials said they were only playing by the book. “All instructions were clear in the hall tickets issued to students. Only those students who don’t adhere to it were dealt with stringent measures,” an official from the Chennai regional office of CBSE told TOI.

Anything which could cause a hindrance in the way of frisking is removed, said K Srinivasan, regional officer of Chennai region. “The intention is that no students should gain any kind of unfair advantage over the other,” he said.

But K Devarajan, former director of government examinations, Tamil Nadu, said the authorities had gone overboard. “It only shows the CBSE’s inability to conduct such exams,” Devarajan said.

The problem is CBSE does not coordinate with state governments to conduct examinations unlike the UPSC or SSC, he said. “The UPSC conducts exams every other week and we do not hear of any such ridiculous measures adopted at those centres,” Devarajan said.

Aspirants of civil services examinations said they had never faced anything of the sort. “There is no dress code. Even frisking and stringent checks are rare. Only last year, students were frisked at some centres,” P Vimal Sankar who appeared for the exams thrice told TOI.

But in JEE the measures are not as stringent. “Authorities have been very gentle with the candidates. Except for a few select centres, frisking is not done mostly,” said Pavan Kumar, deputy director of FIIT JEE, a training centre.

TIMES VIEW 

Paranoia. That best explains the inefficiency of authorities who were too eager on Sunday to make NEET candidates remove earrings, footwear and even sacred threads in the name of preventing malpractice. Yes, Bluetooth devices have been used by some candidates to cheat in competitive examinations, but technology must be met with technology, not by crass body search and intimidation. There are gadgets to trace copying devices and jam communication, if you will.

Making children remove nose rings and dupattas is sheer humiliation. If these excesses were in the name of CBSE guidelines, the central board is not the right agency to handle this exercise. It is time another body specialised in handling such responsibility is created. Service commissions conduct exams for 10 times the number of NEET students, but humiliates no candidate. Learn.

TEARS OF RELIEF: A NEET aspirant breaks down after the test at Maharishi Vidya Mandir in Kilpauk. Students are frisked at exam centres; those wearing religious symbols were forced to remove them. At the same centre, a girl (left) has her anklets removed and takes off a sacred thread on her wrist