T.N. poll officials to be included in priority group for vaccination

T.N. poll officials to be included in priority group for vaccination

16/02/2021

Special Correspondent CHENNAI

With Tamil Nadu all set to go to the polls in a few months, government officials involved in election work would be included in the priority group of frontline workers for COVID-19 vaccination.

Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan on Monday said the officials who were to be deployed for election work would be regarded as frontline workers.

Registrations this week

“The National Expert Group on Vaccination Administration has issued an advisory for their registration, and we will start the registration of those who will be engaged in poll work this week. They will be vaccinated,” he told reporters at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH), where he received the second dose of Covaxin.

LPG price increase shocks consumers

LPG price increase shocks consumers

Domestic cylinder now costs ₹785

16/02/2021

Special CorrespondentCHENNAI

Cooking gas customers on Monday were shocked to see the sudden increase in the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders.

In Chennai, the price of a non-subsidised domestic cylinder shot up from ₹735 to ₹785. The subsidy component remained ₹24.9 a cylinder. This is the second increase in LPG price this month. It was ₹735 for a domestic cylinder in the beginning of the month when it went up from last month’s price of ₹710.

Daughter says no to marriage proposal, parents end life

Daughter says no to marriage proposal, parents end life

Darshan BH@timesgroup.com

Hassan:16.02.2021 

Shattered by the decision of their daughter to back out of a marriage proposal a day before her engagement, a couple hanged themselves in their house in Ballurupura village of Hassan district’s Alur taluk early Monday.

Police sources said the deceased have been identified as Puttaraju, 58, and Kanthamma, 52. The childless farmercouple had adopted their nephew and niece nearly two decades ago.

According to police, after performing the marriage of their son, the parents were looking for an alliance for their daughter, who is doing an undergraduate course in Holenarsipur taluk of Hassan district. When they found a groom from neighbouring Arkalgud taluk, the date for engagement was set for Sunday.

Family sources said the bride-to-be reportedly expressed unwillingness about getting married and conveyed decision to her parents. An officer said the parents, their son Siddegowda, 36, and daughterin-law tried to convince her, but she stood her ground.

During arguments, the girl in her early 20s reportedly walked out of the house on Saturday and stayed at her friend’s place. By evening, she was brought home. Siddegowda said his parents tried to talk her out of the decision and the discussiosn went on till 2am on Monday with no resolution. “When I woke up in the morning, I found my parents hanging from the roof of the cattleshed attached to our building,” he added.

The daughter backed out of the wedding proposal a day before her engagement

Apply PG norms for revaluation of failed MBBS students: HC

RGUHS EXAM

Apply PG norms for revaluation of failed MBBS students: HC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:16.02.2021 

The high court has directed Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS ) to apply the formula as provided in the ordinance governing PG students, while undertaking revaluation of answerscripts, declaration of results and issuance of marks cards pertaining to failed MBBS students.

The PG guildelines stipulate where there is a difference of 15% or more in the four valuations, the answerscript has to be sent for a fifth valuation.

The court has also quashed and set aside the amendment to the ordinance governing valuation of answerscripts of MBBS course (RS-3 Scheme), notified on October 13, 2020. “The special powers conferred on the vice-chancellor under section 13(2) cannot extend to taking over the power of the syndicate to promulgate ordinances under section 35 of the RGUHS Act, 1994. At any rate, by invoking section 13(2) of the RGUHS Act, the vice-chancellor is definitely not entitled to take over the consultation process of an expert body viz., Academic Council, which is required to give its expert opinion under section 35(3)(b), essential for promulgating an ordinance,” Justice R Devdas observed .

Allowing the petitions filed by KB Basanth and others, the judge also directed the health university to complete the entire exercise before commencement of the next year examinations, which is tentatively scheduled to start in the first week of March 2021.

The amendment ordinance under challenge required all answerscripts of UG course to be subjected to digital valuation by four evaluators, 50% of them by internal examiners and 50% by external examiners of different universities other than RGUHS and preferably by evaluators from outside the state as prescribed by MCI.

It further provided that the average of total marks awarded by the four evaluators for the paper, which is rounded off to the nearest value, should be considered for computation of results and that the marks awarded and the results declared after general valuation should be final and under no circumstances, further valuation should be entertained.

No takers for 700 dental seats in K’taka

No takers for 700 dental seats in K’taka

SruthySusan.Ullas@timesgroup.com

Beng aluru:16.02.2021 

At least 700 dental seats in Karnataka’s private medical colleges are likely to remain unfilled this year even after the Supreme Court relaxed admission criteria in early February.

There are 2,880 BDS seats in 44 dental colleges of the state. The colleges have so far filled 70% of the seats. While 167 had registered for the new round of counselling with the Karnataka Examinations Authority, 15 of them failed to pay fees.

In 2019, the number of seats that were vacant in the state was 291. Even if all the 150 new candidates take admission this year, around 700 seats are likely to go vacant, almost double of last year, sources said. February 18 is the last date for admissions.

On February 9, the SC ruled that reducing cutoff marks will not lower the quality of education and directed that the qualifying marks be lowered by 10 percentile. The qualifying mark for BDS became 40 percentile for general category and 30 percentile for SC/ST quota. The decision was taken in order to fill 7,000 vacant seats in the country for the academic year 2020-21.

“There could be two reasons for the increase in vacant seats this year,” said Dr Shivsharan, a Dental Council of India member. “One, there has been an addition of around 20,000 medical seats this year nationally. Also, with the next NEET in a few months, those students who did not do well and missed medical seats by a small difference in marks have another chance soon,” he said.

Dr Girish B Giraddi, dean and director, Government Dental College and Research Institute, said apart from the fear that the field has become saturated in cities, Covid played a major role in the large number of vacant seats.

Many AIADMK ministers will end up in jail: Stalin

Many AIADMK ministers will end up in jail: Stalin

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Trichy/Ariyalur:16.02.2021 

The AIADMK was misleading people by its poll promises made during 2011 and 2016 assembly elections, said DMK leader M K Stalin in Pudukottai district on Monday. Stalin also alleged that chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami was committing irregularities in floating tenders for big projects. He was addressing the party’s ‘Ungal Ooril Stalin’ campaign at Thirumayam in Pudukottai and Kollapuram near Ariyalur. He said the 10-year rule of the AIADMK had pushed back the state by 50 years and the DMK would reverse it and set the state on a growth trajectory, if elected to power.

Recalling the AIADMK’s election manifesto for the 2011 assembly polls, he said it made a series of promises to farmers, from starting a second green revolution, increasing farmers’ income by twoto-three-fold, free agriculture equipment, minimum support price for crops such as sugarcane and setting up drip irrigation free of cost. But the promises were not fulfilled, he said. Similarly, its promises in 2016, such as supply of free cell phones to ration card holders, waiver of education loans, free Wi-Fi at public places, Amma bank cards and one litreof milk at ₹25were notimplemented.

Stalin said the first six years of the AIADMK rule in the state went in handling the disproportionate assets case against former chief minister J Jayalalithaa. Then, the incumbent chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami spent the next four years trying to retain his post. “They have no time to think about people but claim that Tamil Nadu is progressing. The progress is only for the state ministers who indulge in corruption,” he said. Many of the ruling party ministers would be put behind bars on corruption charges if the DMK was voted to power, he said. Claiming that health minister C Vijaya Baskar hid the data of Covid-19 infected people and deaths in the state, Stalin accused him of mismanaging the fight against the pandemic by not taking early steps to contain the spread of the virus, leading to many deaths. At the campaign for the four assembly segments in Ariyalur and Perambalur districts at Kollapuram, he alleged that the chief minister was floating tenders in a hurry for projects that would take three to four years to finish.

DMK’s scams still not forgotten: OPS

Chennai:

Hours after DMK chief MK Stalin announced on Sunday that the party's second list of charges against the ruling AIADMK was ready, AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam said evil forces cannot prevent the sprouting of two leaves again. In a series of tweets on Sunday night, Panneerselvam said, “Never forget that the people of Tamil Nadu joined hands with us to remove the stained DMK government and pack you (Stalin) home. People are aware that corruption and the DMK are no different.” OPS alleged that the DMK was the only party in the political history of India that was dissolved for corruption, and the party was known for several scams, including 2G scam, Veernam scam and a pesticide scam, bringing shame to the country and Tamil Nadu. The AIADMK coordinator said that Stalin was daydreaming that people have forgotten about the DMK’s scams. TNN

Engg colleges seek relaxation of rules to begin new courses

Engg colleges seek relaxation of rules to begin new courses

They Need 50% Admissions To Obtain NBA Accreditation

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:16.02.2021 

Engineering colleges in the state have asked the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to relax rules to start courses in emerging areas such as artificial intelligence, data science and cyber security.

Now, colleges should have accreditation to start the new courses or they have to reduce intake in existing courses. "To get accreditation, engineering colleges should have 50% admissions against sanctioned intake. With admission to traditional courses dipping in the last few years, colleges have not been able to go for accreditation. They can survive only if they get courses such as AI and data science. Hence we have asked for simplification of the rules,” a representative from the consortium of self-financing professional, arts and science colleges said.

Of 461 colleges that took part in online engineering counselling last year, only around 130 were able to fill more than 50% of seats. Based on AICTE's direction, Anna University allowed around 50 engineering colleges to start BTech AI and Data Science courses in 2020-21. The courses saw 63.5% seats filled in the first year, while response was poor for traditional courses such as civil engineering,

(23.5%), mechanical engineering (27.8%) and electrical and electronics engineering (34%).

Top colleges, which have accredited their courses, want minimum fees fixed to meet the expenditure on implementing the seventh pay commission award. "A professor's salary would come closer to ₹2lakh. We expect AICTE to fix a minimum fee for engineering courses,” said R M Kishore, vicechairman of RMK Engineering College in Chennai.

Some principals want top colleges categorised to allow them to collect more fees. "It would encourage colleges to go for accreditation. They should categorize colleges into two or three groups and fix their fees accordingly. AICTE should also think of renewing approval for top colleges once in three years instead of annually," said B Chidambararajan, principal of SRM Valliammai Engineering College. Deemed universities want AICTE to fix the intake cap for the total number of students and not separately for degree programmes. “AICTE can grant approval by default on submission of data for top 100 universities in NIRF ranking,” said S Vaidhyasubramaniam, vice-chancellor of SASTRA.

And, professors have asked AICTE to evolve a mechanism to verify salaries. "Some engineering colleges have sacked senior faculty to avoid paying high salaries. AICTE should ensure cadre ratio in all departments," said a professor at a private engineering college.