Court says no to plea for CBI probe against Unnao doctors

‘It’s the prerogative of the CBI to conduct the prosecution’

19/09/2019 , press trust of india, New Delhi 

 

A Delhi court has refused to direct the CBI to initiate a probe against the doctors who had treated the father of the Unnao rape survivor when he was injured and in judicial custody, saying it was the prerogative of the CBI to conduct the prosecution.
District Judge Dharmesh Sharma was hearing a plea filed by the counsel of the woman, who was allegedly raped by Uttar Pradesh MLA Kuldeep Sengar in 2017.

The court, however, said that if during the course of the trial any evidence surfaces about the role played by any of the doctors in the entire episode, appropriate orders would be passed.
Senior Public Prosecutor Ashok Bhartendu had opposed the plea saying that nothing has come up in their investigation so far to call the doctors as accused before the court.

The plea, filed by advocate Dharmendra Mishra, had alleged that the doctors at the district hospital deliberately did not examine the father of the woman properly at the behest of Sengar.

Charges framed

The court had earlier framed charges against Sengar and nine others for allegedly assaulting and framing the rape survivor's father in an arms case and murdering him in judicial custody.

Proposal to pay students’ CBSE exam fee gets Cabinet approval
The move will benefit 3.14 lakh students, cost govt. ₹57 crore

 19/09/2019 , Special Correspondent , NEW DELHI

The Delhi Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Department of Education’s proposal that the State government will pay the CBSE examination fee of Class X and XII students of government and government-aided schools, including taken over schools and Patrachar Vidyalayas.

The move is likely to benefit 3.14 lakh students and will cost the government ₹57 crore. This will be implemented from the current academic session (2019-20) onwards.

Giving details, the government said that the DoE will remit the total exam fee of students directly to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) through heads of schools concerned.

The fee will include that paid towards practical examinations for science stream and vocational subjects opted by students of Class XII. “No fee shall be collected from students on account of CBSE board exam fee,” the government said.

₹1,800 per student

“There are 1,79,914 students studying in Class X, and 1,33,802 students in Class XII. There are five compulsory subjects and one optional subject for which fee is to be remitted. This will be ₹1,800 per student,” the government said.

Earlier, the government had announced that it will pay the fees of students after the CBSE notified the hike last month.

The CBSE had increased the fee for general category students from ₹750 to ₹1,500 for five subjects. Justifying the increase in examination fee, CBSE had said that expenditure on Class X and XII exams amounted to approximately ₹500 crore last year and that earnings from student exam fee was less than ₹250 crore.

DGCA grounds 3 IndiGo pilots, 2 engineers

19/09/2019 , New Delhi

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has grounded three pilots and two aircraft maintenance engineers of IndiGo for not reporting vibrations in the Pratt and Whitney engines. The PW engine-powered aircraft have been facing glitches since their induction in 2016. PTI

Insurance investigators can call for road accident records
Police can’t deny information treating them as ‘third party’, rules panel
 
19/09/2019 , S. Vijay Kumar, CHENNAI 


 
State Information Commissioner advised Ramanathapuram SP to instruct all police stations in the district to ensure that accident documents are shared without delay. File Photo

Insurance investigators are entitled under the law to access records relating to road accidents and police cannot deny such details by treating them as “third party”, the Tamil Nadu Information Commission has ruled.

Passing orders on an appeal filed by an Insurance Investigator K. Karuppiah of Madurai, who challenged the denial of a fatal road accident case documents sought by him under the Right to Information Act, 2005, the Commission citing a Supreme Court ruling said the petitioner was well within the legal framework to access the road accident case details.

Request rejected

In June 2018, Mr. Karuppiah wrote to the Ramanathapuram Town Crime Inspector seeking copies of the insurance copy, Registration Certificate, driving licence; permit copy, First Information Report, sketch of accident scene, wound certificate and post-mortem copy of a fatal road accident.

The public authority refused to divulge any information on the grounds that it could not be shared with a “third party”.

He stated that the information could be shared only with the affected persons only. The petitioner filed an appeal before the first appellate authority and not satisfied with the reply moved the Tamil Nadu Information Commission. After hearing both sides, State Information Commissioner T. Dhakshinamurthy held that the denial of information to the Insurance Investigator on the grounds that he was a “third party” was incorrect and unacceptable.

He said the Supreme Court in the General Insurance Council and others versus the State of Andhra Pradesh had ruled that police should share accident documents should be shared by the police with Insurance Investigators in order to provide suitable compensation to the victims at the earliest.

The Director-General of Police had also issued a circular in this regard.

Case closed

After the Ramanathapuram police, represented by the Additional Superintendent of Police, agreed to provide the documents sought by the petitioner during the course of the hearing, the Commission closed the case.

Mr. Dhakshinamurthy advised the Ramanathapuram Superintendent of Police to instruct all police stations in the district to ensure that road accident documents sought by Insurance Investigator be issued without any delay.

Though beneficial, common language not possible in India’
Rajini warns that States will oppose imposition of Hindi

19/09/2019 , Staff Reporter, CHENNAI 


Rajinikanth

Actor and Rajini Makkal Mandram founder Rajinikanth on Wednesday said that though having a common language will be beneficial for the growth and unity of a country, such an arrangement was ‘unfortunately’ not possible in India.

When asked about Home Minister Amit Shah’s remark that Hindi alone could be a unifying language in India, the actor said: “Having a common language is beneficial for the growth and unity of any country. Unfortunately, we cannot have that in India. Specifically, we cannot impose Hindi in India. If they [the government] do that, it will be opposed not only by the south Indian States but by some north Indian States as well.”

When asked about the death of Subasri, a young woman who was killed after a banner placed by an AIADMK functionary fell on her, Mr. Rajinikanth said he had already told his fans to avoid putting up banners.

Meanwhile, there were reports that Mr. Rajinikanth had met office-bearers of the Mandram to discuss the future course of his political journey. However, sources in the Mandram said the actor hadn’t held any consultations with its members in the recent past. “The reports about him meeting office-bearers to discuss the perception of him being close to the BJP are all rumours. As he has already mentioned, he will start a political party when the time is right. Until then, he has asked the office-bearers of RMM not to speak about politics,” a source said.

North Indian candidates get lion’s share of railway jobs in Madurai Division 

Official attributes it to Central govt.’s reservation policy 

19/09/2019 , Special Correspondent, Madurai

The Division of the Southern Railway has sought to downplay the large-scale appointment of north Indian candidates to positions in the Division under the all-India recruitment for Group D or Level I posts.

Declining to give a State-wise break-up of the 620 candidates selected for posts including trackman, pointsman, helper and gatekeeper, a senior official said, “We don’t look at the States to which the candidates belong.”

Admitting that many of them were from north India, he attributed this to the Central government’s reservation policy, which offers 7.5% reservation to candidates belonging to the Scheduled Tribes. “In Tamil Nadu, the population of STs is around 1%, while the Central government has provided an all-India reservation of 7.5% in recruitment. People belonging to ST communities, who are in large numbers in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and the northeastern States, do apply for posts in the Railway Recruitment Cell - Chennai, which recruits people for the Southern Railway,” he added.

‘Better chance’

Noting that candidates who have passed Class X can appear for the common online entrance test, the official said they should choose any one Railway Recruitment Cell where they would prefer to be appointed. “With more people from other States appearing for the test and choosing RRC-Chennai and relatively less people from T.N. and Kerala appearing for the test, those hailing from States other than T.N. and Kerala stand a better chance of getting a job,” he explained.

Of the 620 candidates selected for the Madurai Division, 560 have joined duty. All of them appeared for the entrance test held last year and passed it.

The official said people from T.N. are more focused on clearing the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission examination, while candidates from north Indian States tend to concentrate on Railway recruitment.

Madurai MP Su. Venkatesan said the recruitment policy should be changed to accord priority to the local populace.

Lifetime achievement award to cardiologist 

Faculty felicitated at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research

9/09/2019 , Special Correspondent, CHENNAI

Faculty and students were recognised and awarded on the founder's day and university day celebrations of Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research on Wednesday, a press release said. S. Thanikachalam, chairman and director, cardiac care centre, was among those who were presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Others included Damodar Rout, chairman and director, neurosurgery, and J. Ravishankar, director, finance & accounts. D.K. Ratul bagged three gold medals for his performance in general surgery in MBBS. A total of 37 gold medals were presented.

Chancellor V.R. Venkataachalam gave away medals and awards to best students, teachers, nurses, research scholars, sports persons, and alumni. Staff who completed long years of service were given gold medals. Vice Chancellor P.V. Vijayaraghavan and S.P. Thyagarajan, Dean, Research, participated in the event.