Breaking: Role of MBBS Students in COVID pandemic- MCI defines activities, lays down criteria

Breaking: Role of MBBS Students in COVID pandemic- MCI defines activities, lays down criteria: New Delhi: In a major move, the apex medical regulator, the Medical Council of India Board of Governors have now defined the activities where MBBS students can now participate and play their role

Arrear exams shall be conducted in Tamil Nadu: AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabuddhe

Arrear exams shall be conducted in Tamil Nadu: AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabuddhe

The issue came to light, after a strongly-worded email, written by Sahasrabuddhe to Anna University V-C threatening to strip Anna University's approval, was leaked on social media.

Published: 08th September 2020 11:19 AM 

AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabuddhe (Photo| AICTE website)

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Engineering students who have arrears and had applied for re-exam in April/May 2020, have not passed and will have to write the exams to graduate, said Anil Sahasrabuddhe, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) Chairman.

The issue came to light, after a strongly-worded email, written by Sahasrabuddhe to Anna University Vice-Chancellor (VC) MK Surappa, threatening to strip Anna University's approval, was leaked on social media.

Sahasrabuddhe in his mail remarked that he found it surprising that final year students, who had failed in various courses in the earlier semesters, are being passed without conducting examinations. "This is not acceptable to award marks without conducting any examination and graduating the students. Such students will not be recognised by industry or by other universities for higher education," he said in the mail.

Sahasrabuddhe further asserted that, "AICTE will be constrained to withdraw the approval of Anna University."

In a telephonic conversation with The New Indian Express on Tuesday morning, Sahasrabuddhe confirmed sending the mail to Surappa and added that he had also discussed the issue with state Chief Secretary K Shanmugham. "She also said that there is some misunderstanding...we are not waiving off exams for the failed students. It is somehow a wrong interpretation by people based on the circular which was issued which was very careful that (said) all AICTE UGC guidelines shall be followed," he elaborated.

He further said that council will not be withdrawing the varsity's approval if arrear exams shall be held. "How can someone with backlogs be passed?" he wondered.

AICTE has not issued any official letter, it was an email, MK Surappa clarified to TNIE. When asked if Anna University issued any notification that waived off any arrear exam, Surappa said, "We have not issued any circular like that to students." He did not want to comment further on the issue.

On July 23, the government announced the cancellation of semester exams for all but final year students. On August 26, CM Edappadi K Palaniswami further directed the Higher Education Department to issue detailed guidelines on the cancellation of the April-May 2020 semester exams for all college students, barring those in their final year.

Expert explains

Expert explains

My son-in-law has purchased an old house in Chennai. Since it was a minor property, the vendor had obtained a clearance certificate from civil court.

Published: 08th September 2020 06:36 AM 

By Justice K Chandru

Express News Service

CHENNAI: My son-in-law has purchased an old house in Chennai. Since it was a minor property, the vendor had obtained a clearance certificate from civil court. According to the instructions given by the court, we purchased a DD against consideration of said property to get it registered. Following that, he applied patta and it was issued. After some weeks, my son-in-law applied for the name transfer of property tax card along with required documents at RO department, Vadapalani. They accepted his application but did not give a property tax card stating the city civil court has to be authenticated. Would the court give such a letter/authentication to RO department?

— TM Raju

Apply for a certificate of funds from the registrar, city civil court and give it to your Revenue Officer. Logic may not work with the officials of the government. This is a very simple procedure.

We have a property, which has a passage in the front, which is under easement (since the late 1950s) from the building in front as that is the only access we have to the road. The owners of the property in front constructed a demarcating wall separating their property from the easement land with a gate towards the passage for vastu compliance, which was kept permanently locked. Our property had uninterrupted access to the road since then till about mid 2000s, when the owners of the property started parking two-wheelers in the passage blocking access and started opening the gate and using the passage too although they had direct access to the road. Now they say that since they are the owners they have absolute right and we have the right only to use the passage and can’t protest their blocking/use of the already narrow passage for vehicle parking/repair. Do the owners of the land on which we have easement have the right to use the property (including parking of vehicles)?

— VaikunthaNathan

A property has to be used for the purpose for which it was intended to be used. If it is a passage, parking of vehicles obstructing the movement of others is a nuisance. In normal course, an owner of the land has a right to use the land, but if eastmentary rights are in existence, then that cannot be curtailed. In case the passage is obstructed intentionally by the owners, you may give a police complaint.

In early January 2020, I had booked, through a city travel agent, two flight tickets (for my wife and I) to go abroad (by Etihad Airways) in the first week of May 2020, and return by the end of July 2020. I had paid the entire fare amount, along with service charges, to the travel agent, in late January. Since no international flight was in operation because of the nation-wide lockdown, our trips stood cancelled. When asked for a full refund (due to airlines cancelling the flight) of the amount paid, the travel agent replied that they, in turn, had paid the amount to the airlines, and hence refund would be possible only when they get their money back. Is the travel agent not duty-bound to refund the amount to me, as my dealing was directly with him, not the airlines? Why should I wait till the airlines settle the travel agent’s account?

— PG Menon

File a consumer complaint against both the agent and the airlines complaining of deficiency in service and for refund of money as well as compensation.

Justice K Chandru is a former judge of the Madras High Court

expertexplains@gmail.com

NEET to have four reporting slots, more exam centres

NEET to have four reporting slots, more exam centres

Manash.Gohain@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:08.09.2020

After a glitch free computer-based Joint Entrance Examination (Main), the next big challenge for the National Testing Agency (NTA) is the pen-paper mode National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) scheduled for September 13 for which 15.97 lakh candidates have registered.

In order to ensure social distancing and crowd management, the agency has increased the number of centres by 1,314 to 3,860 this year. In the standard operating procedures (SOPs) accessed by the TOI, reporting time has been divided into four slots of 40 minutes each starting from 11 am with candidates provided individual time slots. During each 40 minutes a maximum of 90 candidates will be allowed entry. At the end of the exam two invigilators will escort 24 candidates to the exit gate and the next batch will be allowed to exit only after the invigilators return.

According to NTA officials, while majority of the centres will have around 360 aspirants, there are 210 centres where candidates are 600 or more.

Apart from the centre superintendent and deputy superintendent for every 180 candidates there will be 30 invigilators, two water boys, two cleaning staff and four guards.

Till Sunday, more than 14 lakh candidates have downloaded admit cards.

“Social distancing protocol would be the key challenge for which we are planning in detail. Assigning of duties and procurement of masks, face shields, gloves, sanitisers and foot stickers are to be completed by September 9,” said an official.

“A candidate will show his/ her admit card where the roll numbers are written in large font, show the photo he/ she is carrying and remove the mask for face recognition from a distance of six feet. Then the candidate will be guided to the room. After sanitising their hands, the sealed OMR sheets will be distributed. Candidates are to open them after hand sanitising. One attendance sheet will have six names and they will sanitise the hand before and after signing,” said official.

Reporting time at the centres has been divided into four slots of 40 minutes each. A maximum of 90 candidates will be allowed entry in each slot

Universities submit exam plans, only Amravati for offline papers

Universities submit exam plans, only Amravati for offline papers

Hemali Chhapia & Yogita Rao TNN

Mumbai: 08.09.2020

Amravati University would be the only varsity in the state to conduct its final exams in the traditional pen-and-paper format; students would have to travel to colleges close by to even take their practical exams. Meanwhile, Mumbai University students prepping to take the online multiple choice model exam would be given a question bank for preparation.

Almost all other universities which submitted their proposals to the state government on Monday stated they would hold online take-from-home exams for candidates. For students who cannot take online exams, offline papers would be offered later. Shivaji University, Kolhapur, is the only varsity that is yet to submit its exam-related decision to the state.

State director of higher education (DHE) Dhanraj Mane said he has received proposals from all universities, barring Kolhapur. “We are compiling all the reports and we will present the same to the state government,” he told TOI. The final report will be forwarded to the disaster management authority. Universities have given detailed reports on the dates when exams would be held and how they would conduct them.

Final-year MU students will receive a question bank with at least 250 questions to understand the exam format. An official said the university is considering giving a question bank with a minimum 250 questions, but colleges can exceed the limit and give more questions.

“The final guidelines, expected to be released on Tuesday, will give more clarity. Whether these question banks will be prepared by individual colleges or lead colleges is still undecided. Since no two students can get the same question paper, we have to provide more questions in the bank. Attempt should be made to cover the entire syllabus,” said the official. While the questions will be in MCQ format and the paper will be of 50 marks, the university is considering giving 25 questions in the paper. It is not final though.

Most universities concurred on the fashion of conducting the exams: Online and in MCQ. SPPU has stated if a student is unable to appear for exams online, the varsity would conduct offline papers on OMR (optical mark recognition) sheets tentatively from October 15. A final decision on whether online exams would be proctored would be taken on September 10.

At Amravati University, though, exams will also require the varsity to procure masks and gloves for faculty and staff who will be handling the process. “We have decided to follow all the SOP (standard operating procedure) for conducting the offline exam. Refresher revision courses are on for students. Each exam will be of two hours and there will be no compulsory questions. Students have to merely answer six questions out of 10,” said Pradeep Khedkar, management council member of Amravati University. Candidates who are not currently close to the college can take the exams from any nearby college. All colleges will be exam centres. There would not be external supervision for practical exams. The university may provide Covid insurance cover to students.

Salary cut: Staff seek CS support

Salary cut: Staff seek CS support

Jaipur:  08.09.2020

As state government employees started their fivephase stir against salary cut on Monday, the representatives of All Rajasthan State Government Employees Federation met chief secretary Rajeeva Swarup and submitted a memorandum urging the government to withdraw its decision to deduct one-day salary and release their pending salaries for the month of March.

According to state general secretary of the federation Tej Singh Rathore, the chief secretary assured them of bringing their demands to the notice of chief minister Ashok Gehlot.

The cabinet had decided to deduct two days’ remuneration of officers belonging to all-India and state services and one-day salary of other state government employees (ministerial and sub-ordinates) from September to mobilise resources for Covid relief fund.

In a memorandum to the chief secretary, they demanded their pending salaries for March (16 days) be released and withdraw the order to deduct one-day salary.

They also demanded that the government must reverse its order to stop payment of cash for 15 days (out of 30 days privilege leave) when they go on leave.

Further, they demanded that the government should have a dialogue on their 15-point demand charter which was submitted earlier.

The charter includes issues pertaining to salary cuts, new pension scheme, contractual employees etc. On September 9, statewide protest will be held in villages, tehsils, sub-divisions, districts by burning the pay cut order. A campaign on Twitter against the government’s order will be run on September 14 and 15. On Sept 21-22, the employees will leave all the department WhatsApp groups for two days. They will neither take orders, nor give any information to higher officials (non-cooperation with the government). TNN

Phase 2 of human trials of vaccine starts in Rohtak

Phase 2 of human trials of vaccine starts in Rohtak

50 Volunteers To Be Part Of Trial At Institute

Sat Singh TNN

Rohtak:08.09.2020

After the successful completion of Phase 1 of human clinical trials of the indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, the PGIMS-Rohtak on Monday has started trials for Phase 2 by roping in more volunteers for the process.

In the Phase 2, 330 volunteers would be administered Bharat Biotech's Covaxin vaccine throughout the country and of them 50 of them would go under vaccine trial at PGIMSRohtak. Bharat Biotech, in partnership with the Indian Council of Medical Research, began research on the first homegrown Covid-19 vaccine in the country a few months ago.

Dr Ramesh Verma, coinvestigator of vaccine trial at PGIMS, said screening of 15 volunteers was done on Monday and after getting a negative Covid-19 result, they would be administered the first dose of Covaxin on Wednesday. He said the following dose would be given after a 28-days and the impact of the vaccine would be seen on the volunteers over 6 months. He said this time the age category for vaccine trials is 12 years to 65 years. "For Phase1, we had invited healthy volunteers, but this time persons with controlled diabetes, asthma, etc. can also participate to observe impact of the virus," Dr Verma added.

Dr Savita Verma, principal investigator of vaccine trials in PGIMS, said they have received the vaccine for the second phase and the process would start as soon as the screening process gets over. She said the permission to conduct Phase 2 was given by the Drug Controller General of India based on the results of Phase 1. All volunteers who participated in the trial are healthy and keeping fine. In the first phase, PGIMS had covered 81 persons, while 250 people have registered for Phase 2, she added.

FOR A SAFE JOURNEY: A passenger used a hand sanitizer before entering a Metro station in Gurugram on Monday