Nursing

Nursing colleges no longer need national council stampRecognition Of State Panel Will Suffice To Admit Students

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

31.8.2018

Chennai:

The state medical university (Tamil Nadu Dr M G R Medical University) has decided to permit colleges recognised by the state nursing council to admit students to nursing courses, even if they don’t have a nod from the Indian Nursing Council. The admission to  nursing courses will begin in September.

On Thursday, the university said it had sought legal opinion from experts including the advocate general before making the decision. “So far, we never allowed colleges that don’t have recognition from the national body to take part (in the admission process). But last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the INC doesn’t hold power to grant recognition. Following this, the council deleted names of recognised colleges from its webpages,” said university registrar Dr T Balasubramanian.

After legal experts said the university can permit colleges recognised by the state council to admit students, the university has given all colleges the go ahead. Administrators of colleges, both government and private, said the decision was a huge relief as they take permission from the Tamil Nadu Nursing Council, the state government and the affiliating university already. “It makes a lot of difference when we don’t need INC permission,” said senior nursing professor Synthia John.

Admissions to government nursing colleges and government quota (35%-50%) seats in self-financing colleges are done through single window counselling by the selection committee just like MBBS and BDS admission.

State selection committee secretary G Selvarajan said admission to paramedical courses, including nursing, will begin after the state wraps up admission for MBBS and BDS. “The prospectus should be available for download by September

15. We should be able to publish rank lists and begin counselling by August,” he said.

According to the Tamil Nadu Nursing Council, as on May 2018, there are 189 recognised medical colleges/universities offering BSc nursing courses and 210 colleges/ universities offering diploma in nursing.

Many students who have joined arts and science colleges and engineering courses in self-financing colleges say the delay in counselling may leave them having to pay the entire fee in the colleges they are currently admitted to if they opt to move out, which may add up to ₹1.5 lakh. “I joined a bachelor’s course in physics because I did not know if I had a chance to join BSc nursing or physiotherapy. The government should ensure that I wouldn’t have to pay the entire course fee if I choose to switch courses,” said G Ashok.

State Government

Govt. orders recovery of excess payments to staff

Dennis S. Jesudasan

CHENNAI, SEPTEMBER 05, 2018 00:00 IST

UPDATED: SEPTEMBER 05, 2018 03:47 IST

Administrative heads told to adhere to guidelines of SC

The State government has issued an order directing the Administrative Departments of Secretariat, Heads of Department and Head of Offices to deal with the issue of wrongful/excess payments made to government servants/pensioners/family pensioners in line with a recent Supreme Court judgment. It has also fixed the ratio of responsibility in case of overpayment/irregular payment made by officers in various offices concerned, as the case may be.

The ratio of responsibility would be on Dealing Assistant Section Officer, Section Officer, Dealing Assistant, Section Superintendent, Dealing Accountant, Superintendent, Assistant Pay and Accounts Officer, Dealing Accountant, Superintendent, Additional Treasury Officer. The order said Administrative Heads and Heads of Departments must adhere to the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in the State of Punjab and others etc vs Rafiq Masih.

Where excess payments has been made on account of wrong pay/pension/family pension fixation, grant of scale without due approvals, promotions without following the procedure, or in excess of entitlements etc, immediate corrective action must be taken.

“A show cause notice may be issued to the employee/pensioner/family pensioner concerned informing him/her of the decision to rectify the order which has resulted in the overpayment, and intention to recover such excess payments,” it stated and laid down a procedure to be followed for recovery of the amount.

If payment has been made in excess due to fraud, misrepresentation, collusion, favouritism, negligence or, carelessness, among other factors, the role of those responsible for overpayments and the employees/ pensioners/family pensioners who benefited from such actions should be identified, and departmental/criminal action must be considered. “No waiver of recovery may be allowed without the approval of Finance Department,” Finance Secretary K. Shanmugam stated in the order.

The recovery would be made only when responsibility of overpayments is fixed by the Head of Office on the concerned official.

UGC Panel

UGC panel asks people for suggestions on med edu fee

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:

The 11-member committee constituted by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to regulate fees charged by deemed universities for medical and dental courses, following directions of the Madras high court, has invited suggestions from members of the public — in not more than 200 words — which can be mailed to dufeeregulation.ugc@gmail.com on or before September 15.

“The committee has decided to seek feedback comments/ suggestions from stakeholders/ members of the public on the current fee structure of deemed universities and the proposed fee structure,” a notification from the UGC said.

In June, the high court directed the committee to finalise the fee payable to medical institutions run by deemed universities by October 31. The UGC later informed the court that the 11-member committee would work on the fee structure. The committee will be headed by former AIIMS director R C Deka and will consist of other members, including vice-chancellors of state universities, former government officials, senior members to be nominated by MCI and health department officials.

Other Universities

STEM THE ROT

DVAC begins questioning accused profs in cash-for-marks scandal

600 Questions To Be Asked, Uma Will Be Quizzed Next

Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com

Chennai:

The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) has started questioning the accused in the re-evaluation scam uncovered in Anna University.

While former controller of exams G V Uma is an accused, the DVAC has prepared a set of 600 questions to be posed to assistant professors R Sivakumar and P Vijaykumar, co-accused in the case. In the re-evaluation/ paper-chasing scam, many students are alleged to have paid a bribe of up to ₹10,000 each to artificially boost their marks during reevaluation.

The questionnaire will delve into the basic modus operandi of the scam. For instance, a student who got seven marks in the first evaluation, managed 55 in the re-evaluation.

In both instances, however, the answer script was checked by the same examiner. “This is a clear administrative lapse by those in charge of the re-evaluation. The two will be questioned on how the same examiner was given that particular candidate’s answer sheet,” a DVAC source said.

Sivakumar was the zonal officer and Vijaykumar the zonal co-ordinator of the re-evaluation centre at University College of Engineering, Tindivanam, where the scam happened last year, in relation to the April/ May 2017 exams. Questioning them could give key inputs to the DVAC, as the two were in charge of appointing examiners for re-evaluation at the centre. It was also their responsibility to give the chosen examiners answer scripts that were not previously assessed by them.

The questioning, which started on Friday, will go on for at least a week, DVAC sources said. A team of investigators and experts would continuously question the two, and the answers given by them will be recorded.

Uma is likely to be questioned after this, but she will be given a different questionnaire which will be equally exhaustive, the source said. “Some of the questions to be posed to Uma will be framed based on the answers given by these two professors,” the source added.

During the April/ May 2017 exams, 3.02 lakh students had applied for re-evaluation (by paying ₹700 each as fee to the university). Out of this, 73,733 obtained pass marks after re-evaluation, while the scores of 16,636 students improved.

Investigators say even if 50% of the students who applied for re-evaluation had paid a bribe of up to ₹10,000, the net worth of the scam around this exam alone would be around ₹40 crore. Sivakumar, Vijaykumar and Uma are also alleged to have destroyed a number of incriminating answer sheets for which the enhanced marks were awarded. They would be grilled about that as well, DVAC sources said.

Other States

3,700 PhD holders apply for messenger’s job in UP

POST WITH CLASS V ELIGIBILITY GETS 93K APPLICANTS

Pathikrit.Chakraborty@timesgroup.com

Lucknow:

More than 50,000 graduates, 28,000 PGs and 3,700 PHDs have applied for 62 posts of messengers — for which minimum eligibility is Class V — at the telecom wing of the UP police. The undergraduate and and postgraduate applicants also include MBAs and BTechs. Out of 93,000 applicants, only 7,400 have studied between Class V and Class XII.

According to police department sources, the 62 posts of peon-messenger have fallen vacant after 12 years. “The job is like that of a postman’s and the person has to deliver police telecom department’s messages from one office to the other,” they say.

Traditionally, the selection for the job requires a selfdeclaration that the applicant knows how to ride bicycle. However, with such a large number of ‘over-qualified’ applicants, now we are chalking out plan to hold a selection test, says an official.

Senior officials in the department told TOI that till the last day of application on August 16, they have received 93,500 applications for 62 posts. The main reason they attributed to this trend is lack of jobs in the market, while this job is full-time government job and also starting salary is ₹20,000.

ADG (telecom) P K Tewari told TOI that it was good that over-qualified candidate would be working in the department. “We would take work from them in other works also, technical candidates will also get faster promotion and will be asset to the department,” he said. “We are contemplating to change the pattern of the examination. As per the current standards of operation, the messenger peon must know how to ride a bicycle, but from this time we are also thinking of conducting a written examination to test the basic skills of candidates.”

Med 2018

TN, 5 others have more doctors than WHO norm of 1:1k people

Despite Good Figures, Rural Areas Remain Underserved

Rema.Nagarajan@timesgroup.com

Even as governments cite shortage of doctors to allow more private medical colleges, six states — Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Goa — have more doctors than the WHO norm of one for 1,000 people. Yet, some can’t find enough doctors for the rural public health system. Also, most doctors from these states are unwilling to move to states like Bihar or UP that suffer from an acute shortage of doctors. This again raises the question of whether merely producing more doctors can address the shortage in public health and in rural areas.

The density of doctors per 1,000 people in Tamil Nadu is as high as 4, almost at the same level as countries like Norway and Sweden, where it is 4.3 and 4.2 respectively. In Delhi, the density is 3, higher than the UK, US, Canada and Japan, where it ranges from 2.3 to 2.8. In Kerala and Karnataka, the density is about 1.5 and it is about 1.3 in Punjab and Goa.

TOI calculated these densities after deducting 20% from the number of registered doctors, as is done by the Medical Council of India to estimate the number of doctors actually available, since many state councils have not updated their registries. In states that have updated them through periodic reregistration, as in Delhi, the 20% reduction was not applied.

Since India’s doctors are largely concentrated in urban areas, it is possible that even some states with doctor population ratios better than 1:1,000 may have shortages in rural areas. However, Tamil Nadu and Kerala boast that they have no vacancies in their rural public health systems.

According to Dr Prabhakar DN, former president of the Karnataka branch of the Indian Medical Association, 40% of doctors in Karnataka are in Bangalore. “In rural areas, there is still a shortage. Bangalore is totally saturated, even for specialists. So they don’t get jobs. Doctor salaries are coming down. Suppose one hospital is doing well in an area. If three more come up in the same area, they will resort to unethical practices to get more patients. We need to focus on producing doctors for the periphery,” said Dr Prabhakar.

“Unlike engineers, who typically need to find jobs, doctors can be self-employed. If there are too many in a geographical area, they resort to unethical practices on the few patients they get to make ends meet,” said Dr N Sulphi, secretary of the Kerala IMA.

The problem also is that many of the states with high doctor-population ratios have the largest number of MBBS seats. As a result, this ratio tends to just keep getting better as more batches graduate.

Tamil Nadu IMA president Dr J A Jayalal agreed that there was a glut of doctors in cities with even consultants getting low pay. “For one post, more than 10 apply for non-clinical disciplines. In clinical, it is now one is to one. But with every passing year, the numbers are increasing, a cause for concern. Government colleges are increasing seats. Poor quality private colleges will have to shut down,” said Dr Jayalal.

Othet States

குஜராத்: தேர்வில் 50க்கு 80 மார்க் பெற்ற மாணவன்

ஆமதாபாத் : குஜராத் மாநில கல்வி வாரியத்தால் நடத்தப்பட்ட தேர்வில், மொத்தம் 50 மதிப்பெண் தேர்விற்கு, ஆசிரியர் 80 மதிப்பெண் வழங்கிய சம்பவம் அரங்கேறியுள்ளது.

குஜராத் கல்வி வாரியத்தால், இந்தாண்டின் முற்பகுதியில் 10ம் வகுப்பிற்கான தேர்வுகள் நடத்தப்பட்டன. கணித தேர்வில், மொத்த மதிப்பெண்களே 50 என்று நிர்ணயிக்கப்பட்டிருந்த நிலையில், மாணவர் ஒருவர் அத்தேர்வில் 80 மதிப்பெண் பெற்றிருந்தார்.

உண்மையில் அந்த மாணவன் 8 மதிப்பெண்கள் மட்டுமே பெற்றிருந்தார். பின்னர் தான் இந்த குளறுபடி கண்டுபிடிக்கப்பட்டது

3 ஆயிரம் ஆசிரியர்களுக்கு சம்மன் :

10 மற்றும் 12ம் வகுப்பு விடைத்தாள்கள் திருத்தலில், இதுபோன்ற குளறுபடிகளை செய்ததாக 3 ஆயிரத்திற்கு மேற்பட்ட ஆசிரியர்கள் விளக்கம் அளிக்க குஜராத் கல்வி வாரியம் சம்மன் அனுப்பியுள்ளது.