New financial system to reduce paper work in Treasuries

STAFF REPORTER

ERODE, SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 00:00 IST


The new system is implemented at a cost of Rs. 288.91 crore over a five year period

Principal Secretary and Commissioner of Treasuries and Accounts Tenkasi S. Jawahar has said that implementation of the Integrated Financial and Human Resource Management System (IFHRMS) in the State will enable the Commissionerate to go paperless, thus reducing the cost of paper and staff workload.

Addressing 2,500 government employees at a sensitisation conference here on Wednesday on the new system being implemented at a cost of Rs. 288.91 crore over a five year period, he said that the path-breaking system is for streamlining treasury operations in the State upon which

As many as 29,000 Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) of the State government and officials in New Delhi will be able to submit the bills to the treasury online without any-time restrictions.

The DDOs need not carry the bills to the treasury and for ascertaining its status as the bills can be tracked online and credited to the beneficiary’s account, thus ensuring greater transparency and convenience. Currently, on an average, a bill is settled in six to ten days from the date of presentation at the Treasury.

Under the new system, where payments are routed through the RBI’s e-kuber facility, bills will be able to be settled on the same day. He said that the system requires minimal human interface thus reducing the possibilities of errors and manipulations.

He said that the system enables the digitisation of the Service Registers (SRs) of about nine lakh State government employees, thus converting the bulky physical Service Registers into e-SRs. This new system is expected to be rolled out by November 2018, he added.

Collector C. Kathiravan was also present.

Varsity copies old exam paper

STAFF REPORTER

BENGALURU, SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 00:00 IST



RGUHS authorities say there was no lapse on their part.
Nursing students face same questions as in 2016

Second year M.Sc. (Nursing) students, who sat for their examination on Wednesday, found that one of their papers had the same set of questions as the 2016 question paper.

While the students are demanding a re-examination for the Nursing Management Examination subject, the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), which conducted the exam, ruled out the possibility.

All eight questions were exactly the same as the ones printed in the October 2016 paper.

Students pointed out that those who had gone through the 2016 paper would have had an ‘unfair’ advantage over their peers. However, university authorities justified this saying the question paper was out in the public domain and all students had access to it.

The university authorities stated that there was no ‘lapse’ on the part of the university. Vice-Chancellor S. Sachidanand and Registrar (Evaluation) M.K. Ramesh said there was no rule that questions from an old paper could not be reproduced.

“The questions are not out of syllabus, and this is sometimes intentional,” Mr. Ramesh said.

Mr. Sachidanand added that all the students received the same question paper.

The questions are not out of syllabus, and this is sometimes intentional

M.K. Ramesh

Registrar (Evaluation)

Regupathi panel files handed over to DVAC, govt. tells HC

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI, SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 00:00 IST

‘Department to take a call on continuance of commission’

The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday informed the Madras High Court that the Justice R. Regupathi Commission of Inquiry that was looking into alleged irregularities in the construction of the new Secretariat complex during the DMK regime will not be revived and that files relating to the case have been handed over the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC).

Advocate General Vijay Narayan made the submission before Justice S.M. Subramaniam who had passed interim orders suspending the commission.

Mr. Narayan told the court that all the documents relating to the commission had been handed over to the DVAC and the agency had to take a further call on the issue.

Last month, Mr. Justice Subramaniam, while questioning the functioning of various commissions, directed the State government to suspend the Regupathi Commission and ordered that all further allotment of funds, perquisites and government facilities provided to the commission be stopped. The judge had observed that the continuance of the commission, without any end in sight, would not serve any purpose.

Formed in 2011

The commission was formed in 2011 by the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to probe illegalities and irregularities in the construction of the Assembly-cum-Secretariat complex at the Omandurar Government Estate on Anna Salai.

The complex now functions as a multi-specialty government hospital.

Mr. Justice Subramaniam had also observed that the State was at liberty to either dissolve certain commissions if they were found to be unnecessary or fix a time frame for reports to be submitted.

‘Lethargy’

A week after the High Court ordered suspension of the commission, retired Justice Regupathi resigned claiming that the delay in the probe was due to the “administrative lethargy of the Registry of the Madras High Court.”

In an interview to The Hindu , Mr. Justice Regupathi said the comments passed by Mr. Justice Subramaniam while suspending the commission were unwarranted, highly reprehensible and erroneous and “that has sharply damaged the reputation of all the commissions of inquiry”.

All documents relating to the commission have been handed over to the DVAC

Vijay Narayan

Advocate General

EATING JUNK FOOD MAY INCREASE RISK OF DEPRESSION, SAYS A NEW RESEARCH

Times of india 28.09.2018

Eating junk food increases the risk of becoming depressed, a study has found, prompting calls for doctors to routinely give dietary advice to patients as part of their treatment for depression. In contrast, those who follow a traditional Mediterranean diet are much less likely to develop depression because the fish, fruit, nuts and vegetables that diet involves help protect against depression, the research suggests. The findings have come from an analysis by researchers from Britain, Spain and Australia, who examined 41 previous studies on the links between diet and depression. “A pro-inflammatory diet can induce systemic inflammation, and this can directly increase the risk for depression. Bad diet heightens the risk of depression to a significant extent,” said Dr Camille Lassale, the study’s lead author.

The analysis found that foods containing a lot of fat or sugar, or processed foods, lead to inflammation of not just the gut but the whole body, known as systemic inflammation. In that respect, the impact of poor diet is like that of smoking, pollution, obesity and lack of exercise.

“Chronic inflammation can affect mental health by transporting proinflammatory molecules into the brain, it can also affect the molecules — neurotransmitters —responsible for mood regulation,” said Lassale.

The research showed that poor diet has a causal link with the onset of depression and not merely an association. They did not find that their results were explained by people who are depressed eating more poor quality food, or that they were depressed to start with, she stressed.

“Poor diet may increase the risk of depression as these are results from longitudinal studies which excluded people with depression at the beginning of the study. Therefore the studies looked at how diet at baseline is related to new cases of depression,” Lassale said.

Dr Cosmo Hallstrom, a depression expert, said that if junk food did raise the risk of depression then an unhealthy diet was not just bad for the body but also the mind. “The chemistry in the gut is very similar to the chemistry in the brain. So, it’s not surprising that things that influence the gut might influence the brain too,” he added.

Added researcher Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard, “This study provides evidence that eating a healthy diet can improve our mood and give us more energy. Increasingly, more GPs are recommending that their patients try to make sensible diet and lifestyle changes as part of a holistic approach to the management of chronic diseases because we know it may have a range of a positive effects on our patients’ physical and mental health.”
Agencies

HC: Allot med seat to visually challenged boy

Srikkanth.D@timesgroup.com

Madurai:28.09.2018

Criticising officials at Government Medical College, Pudukottai, for citing pedantic reasons to avoid admitting a visually challenged student, the Madurai bench of the Madras high court has directed the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) to admit him in the college. If seats in the Pudukottai college are filled, authorities are to allot a seat in any other college within the state, the court said.

J Vibin of Tenkasi was allotted an MBBS seat at the college under differently-abled quota based on his All-India rank of 285. He attended medical counselling and got the allotment order on August 1.

When Vibin went to the college with the order, he was asked to produce a disability certificate. He submitted the one issued by the government which put his disability at 75 % but he was asked to produce a fresh certificate issued by Madras Medical College, which in turn issued a certificate stating that he had 90% visual disability. Authorities declared him unfit to join the course and subsequently Vibin’s father moved the court.

When the petition came up for final hearing, counsel for the teenager cited a recent decision of the apex court which ruled in favour of a student who secured 419th rank in the differently abled quota. The denial of admission citing 90% visual disability is contrary to provisions of the disabilities act, counsel said.

In response, government counsel said the teenager was not found fit by the disability assessment board. Justice V Parthiban said the authorities should have given a positive thrust in implementing the objectives of the disabilities act. The court stressed that his visual disability, even assuming it to be 90%, should not be held against him in granting admission.

The attitude of the authorities is a sad reflection of kafkaesque mindset, unmindful of the harm that may inflict on a person with disability, the judge said.

The court said his visual disability, even assuming it to be 90%, should not be held against him in granting admission

Govt to recruit temporary teachers in higher secondary schools through PTA

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Coimbatore:28.09.2018

To fill vacant teacher posts in government higher secondary schools on temporary basis (for six months), the government has issued orders to recruit teachers through parent-teacher associations (PTAs).

There are 1,474 vacant posts for graduate (PG) teacher across the state and the school education department has decided to fill the posts through PTAs until fresh recruitments are made by the Teacher Recruitment Board (TRB), said a circular issued by the department.

Even though the board has initiated steps to fill the vacant posts, the process is time consuming and for the benefits of Class XI and XII students, the posts should be filled immediately, the circular said.

Teacher posts for eleven main subjects including Tamil, English, biology and zoology should be filled.

The posts are to be filled for the period between September 2018 to February 2019 on contract basis and a teacher will get ₹7,500 per month, the circular added.

Most of the posts fell vacant only two months ago after transfer counseling to fill posts of headmasters in government high schools was conducted, said a government school teacher, explaining that more than 80% of the HM posts were filled with PG teachers.

Attributing the existing vacancies to poor planning of the department, government school teachers condemned the move to fill the posts with temporary teachers.

“After revamping the syllabus, the department has conducted a three-day training to make teachers understand the teaching methodology and techniques adopted in the revamped syllabus. But, such training would not be provided for teachers recruited through the PTAs,” a teacher said.

Explaining that most of the PTA teachers would be fresh out of college without sufficient teaching experience, another teacher said it was going to be extremely difficult for the new teachers to understand and teach as it was difficult even for some experienced teachers. “The teachers could provide some sort of assistance to the students but not train the students,” he said, adding the government could say, on paper, that they had filled all the posts but in reality, it would not be effective.

The posts are to be filled for a period between September 2018 and February 2019 and a teacher will get ₹7,500 per month, a govt circular said

Hidden hoard in lockers of RTO caught taking bribe
2.5Kg Gold, 10.5Kg Silver Recovered A Few Days Ago

Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com

Chennai:28.09.2018

When sleuths of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-corruption (DVAC) caught Babu, a regional transport officer (RTO) in Kallakurichi of Villupuram, allegedly accepting a bribe of ₹25,000 early this month, little did they realise that would unearth much more.

Investigation into the official’s assets by DVAC has found nearly 13kg of gold and 32kg of silver from the officers bank lockers, apart from several property documents.

DVAC sources say when Babu’s residence was searched in the second week of September, they seized ₹30 lakh, around 1kg of gold and 11kg of silver. They also seized keys to six lockers.

These keys opened lockers held by Babu in several banks like SBI, HDFC, Andhra Bank and Catholic Union Bank (CUB), the sources said. In some cases, he had multiple lockers with the same bank, a source added.

When sleuths went checking recently, they found gold in the lockers.

In one locker, there was 10kg of silver. A few days ago, 2.5kg of gold and 10.25kg of silver were recovered from one of the lockers, the source said.

Apart from this, the lockers also had certificates of authenticity for diamond jewels, DVAC sources said.

In all, more than 60 property documents and 40 other policy documents have been recovered from the bank lockers, officers of the investigating agency said.

“This indicates that basically this RTO officer working in one corner of the state was a multi-millionaire,” said a source privy to the investigations. The recovery has completely taken the sleuths by surprise.

Incidentally, Babu was arrested after a complaint lodged by a man named B Muthukumar, who alleged that the official had demanded a bribe of ₹25,000 for issuing a fitness certificate, on September 10.

Along with Babu, middleman Senthil Kumar has reportedly been arrested by the DVAC which is keeping a close watch on transport department officials as they have come across modus operandi of several scams and methods by which black money is converted into gold, silver or invested in property.

The agency busted a scam in Madurai involving training schools recently.