19,500 register for UG courses at DU on Day 1

19,500 register for UG courses at DU on Day 1

Shradha.Chettri@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:  21.06.2020

Delhi University’s admission process began on Saturday with 19,543 students registering for the undergraduate courses within four hours of the portal going live. The registration portal will remain open for students till July 4. As many as 5,889 students registered for admissions to the postgraduate courses and 457 for PhD.

The portal will be re-opened for students to upload their marks later. As the varsity is waiting for clarity on the CBSE board exams, the cutoff dates will also be announced afterwards.

The registrations are open for students applying for merit-based and entrance-based courses. There are 10 courses for which entrance exams are held by National Testing Agency in 20 cities. The dates are yet to be announced.

Due to the Covid-19 crisis, the admission process has seen several changes this year. While admissions under the extracurricular activities quota, except for NSS and NCC, have been scrapped, sports admissions will be based on only certificates. The admission process will be contactless and students will not have to go to college to complete the admission process. The colleges will verify the documents online.

“No application will be left undecided. It will either be approved or declined. The uploaded documents will be verified by respective colleges within the stipulated time period. If at this stage, it is found that the information given by the applicant is false and is not supported by the documents presented, the admission will be immediately cancelled. No fees will be refunded in such cases,” said Shobha Bagai, the admission branch head, at an online press meet.

Instead of the ‘open days,’ which the university used to conduct to clarify doubts related to registration and admission, Delhi University would be conducting webinars.

Bagai added, “The first few webinars will explain the registration process. Later, such webinars can be used to clarify any doubts related to the admission process.”

Earlier, the colleges used to reserve up to 5% seats for sports and ECA categories. Now wi th ECA admissions scrapped, the colleges have been asked to rework their seat matrix.

As per the information bulletin, the university will release five cutoffs. Even after this, if seats remain vacant for the general category, the colleges will be releasing a special cutoff. The cutoff for the special cutoff admissions will be the last cutoff declared by the college for a particular course.

For reserved categories, special drives will be conducted.

Govt cancels leaves of all health department staff

Govt cancels leaves of all health department staff

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:  21.06.2020

Delhi government has cancelled the leaves of all employees under its health department, including doctors and support staff of hospitals, as coronavirus cases in the city continue to rise rapidly. The capital has the third highest number of Covid-19 cases after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

“All MDs, dean and directors of hospitals and medical institutions under the health and family welfare department are advised to issue directions to all the staff under them who are on leave to immediately report for their duties,” a government order said. It, however, allowed the employees to take leave under the “most compelling circumstances.”

A senior doctor at Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty hospital said they are facing shortage of staff and in such a situation the hospital cannot afford to have employees taking leave.

Lok Nayak hospital has 2,000 Covid-19 beds. Only about 700 of them are full, but the authorities say they aren’t allowing any leaves because given the current crisis extra manpower needs to be available all the time.

On Friday, Delhi government had issued orders for deploying final-year postgraduate and undergraduate nursing students to manage Covid-19 patients. The decisions were taken in a meeting deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia with senior health department officials to discuss the augmentation of the ICU beds in the capital.

As most of the PG medical institutions in Delhi are affiliated with Guru Govind Singh Indraprastha University, Mahesh Verma — the varsity’s vicechancellor — has been appointed for the recruitment and deployment of the required number of final-year MD/MS/DNB and nursing students.

“Verma is also authorised to recommend necessary stipend payable to the recruits,” stated the order issued by Sisodia, who is in-charge of the health department in the absence of Satyendar Jain. All recruitment will be completed in four days.

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COVID-19 BEDS IN LOK NAYAK HOSPITAL

Govt chooses to go knocking on doors to give ₹1k dole when the city is a hotspot

Govt chooses to go knocking on doors to give ₹1k dole when the city is a hotspot

Komal.Gautham@timesgroup.com

Chennai:  21.06.2020

For five days from Monday, foot soldiers from the civil supplies department will knock on the doors of more than 1.8 million homes in the Greater Chennai Corporation limits to distribute the Rs1,000 dole to each cardholder. Why do they and the beneficiaries have to run the risk of catching the Covid-19 infection when direct benefit transfer (DBT) would ensure the money is distributed electronically, which also ensures zero pilferage?

This is the second solatium being paid out this pandemic. The first effort in April saw crowds around ration shops. So why not use the DBT, built on the Aadhar platform to which all ration cards in the state are linked?

“There will be a rush to withdraw money from the banks. Also, we do not have bank account details of all the card holders. So, we decided on door-to-door delivery of cash,” said Sujjan Singh R Chavan, civil supplies and consumer protection commissioner. Use of DBT would definitely be considered, he added.

There are 2.08 lakh card holders across the state of whom 18 lakh are in Chennai, which has 1,800 PDS outlets.

Even larger cash payouts by the central government are done at the click of a button using Aadhar Bridge, a facility that UIDAI offers for cash transfer using Aadhar numbers.

Former Chennai mayor Ma Subramanian of the DMK sees a political motive behind the government insisting on physical distribution of the dole. He says the ration shop employees will be accompanied by AIADMK workers when they go to distribute the money.

“They are risking everyone’s life. The purpose of the lockdown will be defeated. The PDS employees will not be able to cover many households in a day. So they will call all the card holders in an area to a particular street to collect the money. They will not follow any social distancing and the risk of infection is high,” he alleged.

Many cardholders do not accept the cash dole, but they don’t inform the government. As a result, that money makes its way into someone else’s pocket. Zakir, a resident of Parrys, said he took the money last time and donated it to an NGO. V Kuppan, a retired public servant and resident of Adambakkam, said he collected the cash though he didn’t need it as otherwise it would be pilfered. “The government should revise the cardholders data and ensure that those who do not want free ration are omitted. I will collect the money as I am aware if I don’t, the employees will take it in my name,” he said.

Corpn, govt show different testing figures

Corpn, govt show different testing figures

Govt Should Explain Huge Disparity In Figures: NGO

Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com

Chennai:21.06.2020

The state government and Greater Chennai Corporation have started publicly releasing day-wise sample testing numbers for the city, but disparities have been noticed by many.

At a press meet on Friday afternoon, corporation commissioner G Prakash said 2.1 lakh people had been tested in the city so far. However, just a few hours later, the medical bulletin released by the state government showed that the total number of samples tested in Chennai was 1,65,609. On Saturday, the bulletin put out by the health department put the total number of samples tested for the city at 1,70,701.

Jayaram Venkatesan, social activist and convenor of Arappor Iyakkam, an NGO, has demanded an explanation for this. “There is a big difference of 45,000 tests between Greater Chennai Corporation’s claim and health department claim. The TN government should explain the difference and if so, what is the result of the 45,000 tests,” Venkatesan said.

There is another data mismatch in the TN government bulletins as well. Saturday’s bulletin put the number of samples tested across the state in the past 24 hours at 33,231, but when the district-wise testing figures of Friday and Saturday – 7,33,744 and 7,11,678 – were compared, the difference was 22,066, TOI has found.

This mismatch, a senior Greater Chennai Corporation official told TOI, was due to a reconciliation issue as huge volumes were handled. “This has been confirmed by the health department also. It is indicated in a footnote in the daily bulletin,” the official said.

As per official corporation statistics, 2.1 lakh samples have been tested in the city until June 19, as indicated by Prakash.

The TN medical bulletin, while giving out testing figures, states that the figures are based on entries made by ICMR-approved RT-PCR testing labs on the ICMR web portal. It also states that the entry of remaining records into the ICMR portal is in progress.

Also the district-wise tagging of tests is based on residential address given by individuals, the bulletin states.

Chennai has around 45 testing labs of which 10-12 are private labs. According to the daily bulletin, across Tamil Nadu, Covid-19 tests are done in 45 government and 40 private labs.

TESTING TIMES: Samples being drawn at Arumbakkam for Covid-19 test by health workers of Greater Chennai Corporation

GHs tighten security to prevent patients from escaping

GHs tighten security to prevent patients from escaping

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai:21.06.2020

City government hospitals (GH) have reinforced security measures after the Friday’s incident in which a Covid-19 patient, who escaped from one of the hospitals, was found dead in Cooum River.

Some hospitals like Stanley Medical College (SMC) have started issuing wristbands again to all Covid patients. Every time a patient is admitted, an investigation card, containing name and ward details, is generated and the same details are printed on their wristbands.

Made up of synthetic material, these bracelets can’t be cut easily and a patient has to wear it till they are discharged, said P Balaji, SMC dean. The bands will differentiate patients from attenders and others who are allowed to go out of the hospital premises.

“Now if a patient tries to sneak out amid crowds during food breaks, security guards will be able to notice them quickly and stop their escape,” said an administrative officer from the hospital. All the eight blocks in the hospital have security guards and CCTV cameras to monitor movement of people and stocks.

More barricades have been placed at all entry and exit points and all staff instructed to keep Covid ward doors closed and allow only authorised persons, said a health department official. Additional police force has also been deputed. “Unlike other wards, we can’t allow attenders at Covid wards since they might get infected. Their entry is restricted only till the triage ward where cases are diagnosed,” said a senior doctor at Kilpauk Medical College Hospital.

The first incident of a Covid patient escaping from a GH was reported at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) on March 28. The 58-year-old man was rescued by police from his home at Basin Bridge. Since then around 50 such attempts have taken place in Chennai, according to official data.

TAGGED: A patient with a wristband at Stanley government hospital

Centre may stick to fare cap, eyes ‘travel bubbles’

Centre may stick to fare cap, eyes ‘travel bubbles’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:21.06.2020

India will from next month look at creating travel bubbles with countries that allow access to its citizens and vice versa, while immediately scaling up Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) repatriation exercise. The government expects domestic passengers movement to touch half go pre-pandemic level by mid-July after which it will consider allowing schedule international flights under a “bilateral bubble arrangement” with such countries. And, the capping done for domestic fares could be extended beyond August 24 depending on the situation.

“In pre-pandemic times, we used to have 3-3.5 lakh domestic passengers daily. We started with 30,000 passengers on May 25 and since then have seen a maximum of 72,000 domestic passengers on a day. I expect to reach half of the precorona level of 1.5-1.6 lakh domestic travellers before mid-July. At that point, we will consider resuming schedule international flights on a country-by-country basis, depending on who allow our citizens in and we theirs based on a bilateral bubble arrangement,” aviation minister H S Puri said.

Air India will add more flights under the ongoing Vande Bharat Mission phase-3 and the next phase will see private Indian airlines operating 750 flights to Gulf and southeast Asia.

‘Will operate 650 flights under Vande Bharat 4.0’

AI chairman Rajiv Bansal said, “We will operate 650 flights under VBM-4 in July. The maximum demand for travel is to and from the US, Canada, Europe, Middle East and southeast Asia.”

Aviation secretary P S Kharola said “Depending on how the situation turns out, the fare band may have to adjusted beyond August 24 also. But right now, it is only for three months.”

“As we ramp up operations further, the fares may fall. AI will tie up with airlines to bring Indians to places in Europe, from say the Carribean, and then fly them to India from there. AI will look at making such arrangement wherever needed,” minister Puri said.

About AI privatisation, Puri said: “I have never been as hopeful and confident on Air India, divestment or disinvestment whatever you choose, as I am now. AI’s true worth has revealed itself in recent times and it is a first class asset. Whether it be for evacuation of Indians from Wuhan, AI has been at the heart of it.”

OFFENSIVE REMARKS AGAINST THE CHINESE

Chinese univ warns Indian student of action over post

Beijing:  21.06.2020

A Chinese university has threatened to take action against an Indian student for allegedly posting offensive comments against the Chinese people on social media, the official media here reported on Saturday.

The Indian national surnamed Kadukkasseri is a student at the Jiangsu University (JSU) in east China’s Jiangsu Province.

His offensive posts have gone viral on China’s Twitterlike Sina Weibo, the Global Times reported.

“The university will punish Kadukkasseri for his wrongdoing according to its regulations on overseas students after further investigation,” the report quoted an official from the JSU surnamed Wu as saying. The Indian student has since apologised, the report said. PTI