Decide within 8 weeks on exam fee refund: HC to CBSE

Decide within 8 weeks on exam fee refund: HC to CBSE

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:  15.07.2021 

Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to take a call in eight weeks if it will refund the examination fees taken from students for class X and XII board examinations that were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Justice Prateek Jalan asked CBSE to consider as representation a petition by Deepa Joseph, mother of a Class X student studying in a CBSE-affiliated school, who had paid Rs 2,100 as examination fee. The CBSE’s decision would be open to challenge if Joseph is not satisfied, the court clarified as it disposed of the petition.

Claiming that the expenditure incurred by CBSE to conduct board examination, as well as its role in the process, was less, the plea pointed out that as per the new policy, “schools were uploading the marks”. The court, however, disagreed and wondered how the role of the board can be reduced.“If CBSE is not doing anything, you take the marksheet from schools and go,” it told the petitioner.

CBSE said it was a self-financing body and its expenditure was principally funded by the examination fees collected from students appearing in boards.

77 new cases; 1 death in last 24 hrs, lowest in four months

77 new cases; 1 death in last 24 hrs, lowest in four months

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:15.07.2021

Delhi recorded 77 fresh Covid-19 cases and one death on Wednesday while the positivity rate stood at 0.1 per cent. Seventy-one patients recovered in the last 24 hours.

As per the health bulletin, 215 people were in home isolation, a minor increase from Tuesday’s figure of 214, while the number of containment zones declined to 472 from 524.

There were 688 active cases in the city, up from Tuesday’s figure of

683. A total of 76,095 tests, including 54,159 RT-PCR/CBNAAT/True-Nat, were conducted in the last 24 hours, while the rest were rapid antigen tests. Out of the 13,715 beds, only 389 were occupied on Wednesday.

The capital had recorded 76 novel coronavirus cases and two fatalities while the positivity rate stood at 0.11% on July 12, according to a health bulletin issued earlier in the day. The Delhi government did not release the health bulletin on Tuesday.

On July11, Delhi had recorded 45 Covid cases, the lowest single-day rise in over a year, and three deaths while the positivity rate was 0.08%.

The capital has registered 14,35,281 Covid-19 cases since the pandemic started last year. A total of 14,09,572 patients have recovered so far. The death toll stands at 25,021, the bulletin stated. The case fatality rate stands at 1.74%.

A total of 1,29,054 beneficiaries were vaccinated in the past 24 hours, including 36,507 who were given the second dose. Delhi has vaccinated 90,73,103 till date, of which 21,31,907 have been fully vaccinated.

0.1  % POSITIVITY RATE OF THE COVID CASES IN THE CITY

SC: WhatsApp msgs have no evidential value

SC: WhatsApp msgs have no evidential value

New Delhi:  15.07.2021 

‘Popularity is not a measure of reliability’ appears to have played on the minds of the Supreme Court, which on Wednesday said messages exchanged on WhatsApp have no evidential value and that the author of such messages cannot be tied to them, especially in business partnerships governed by agreements, reports Dhananjay Mahapatra.

A bench of CJI N V Ramana and Justices A S Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy said, “What is evidential value of WhatsApp messages these days? Anything can be created and deleted on social media these days. We don’t attach any value to the WhatsApp messages.”

WA message fabricated, firm tells top court

The issue related to a December 2, 2016 Concession Agreement between South Delhi Municipal Corporation and a consortium comprising A2Z Infraservices and another entity for collection and transportation of waste materials. On April 28, 2017, A2Z entered into another agreement with Quippo Infrastructure (now Viom Infra ventures) for carrying out a part of the contracted work and it was agreed that all monies received by A2Z would be deposited in an escrow account from which payments would be made to parties.

On May 28 last year, A2Z terminated the contract agreement and Quippo moved the Calcutta HC on September 14 for appointment of an arbitration panel on certain issues relating to the contract agreement with A2Z. The parties agreed for an arbitrator on January 14 this year.

A single judge bench of the Calcutta HC was told by Quippo counsel about a WhatsApp message of March 19, 2020 in which A2Z purportedly admitted payment of Rs 8.18 crore due to Quippo. Quippo also showed an email of year 2018 in which A2Z had agreed to deposit all money received from SDMC in an escrow account.

A2Z told HC that the WhatsApp message was forged and fabricated. But, the HC directed A2Z to “deposit all the money received by them in future from South Delhi Municipal Corporation in connection with the work covered by the Master Service Agreement in the escrow account subject to further direction in this behalf by the arbitral tribunal or the arbitral award that may be passed”.

Appearing for A2Z before the SC, senior advocate Ranjit Kumar said though the agreement was terminated and the dispute stood referred to arbitration, it was incomprehensible why the HC ordered all receivables from SDMC be deposited in the escrow account. “Why should the HC believe a WhatsApp message when we have disputed it as forged and fabricated,” he said.

For Quippo, senior advocate Ritin Rai said that the escrow account was created on the basis of an agreement for equitable distribution of the money between the parties.

“Prima facie we are not satisfied with the HC direction . We are not considering the purported admission in WhatsApp message,” the bench said.

Haridwar closed for kanwar yatra, UP looks at new routes

Haridwar closed for kanwar yatra, UP looks at new routes

Sandeep.Rai@timesgroup.com

Meerut:15.07.2021

The tiny town of Garh Mukteswar in Hapur district, about119-km from Delhi, is likely to host lakhs of kanwar pilgrims if the UP government comes good on its promise to allow the yatra. With Haridwar out of bounds after the Uttarakhand administration called off the pilgrimage for this year citing threat from the pandemic, Garh Mukteswar is slowly emerging as an alternative destination for the Shiva devotees.

The UP government, which had earlier requested Uttarakhand to let the pilgrims pass en route for Haridwar, from where they collect water from the Ganga, has asked all those participating in the yatra to carry a Covid-19 negative certificate. The yatra is likely to begin from July 25 unless there is a change of plans. Apart from UP, kanwariyas from Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and even Himachal take part in the yatra.

The administration, after mulling several alternatives, has zeroed in on the ancient town of Garh Mukteswar, which hosts pilgrims throughout the year. Divisional commissioner of Meerut, Surender Singh, told TOI, “We have already started preparations for the security and overall management. Now that Uttarakhand has cancelled it, we have to find another destination from where pilgrims can fetch Ganga water. For instance, devotees in eastern UP bring the holy water from Prayagraj and Varanasi. In the western region, one such site could be Garh Mukteshwar in Hapur. But our options are open and we are working in this direction.” District magistrate of Hapur, Anuj Singh, said the administration will be able to hold the yatra in the town as the numbers will be less this time due to the Covid situation. “The possibility of using Garh Mukteshwar ghats for the pilgrimage is being explored as religious fairs take place throughout the year here,” the DM said.

Menacing monkey terrorizes Ratan Pol

Menacing monkey terrorizes Ratan Pol

FORESTERS STRUGGLE TO CATCH SIMIAN THAT SEEMS TO BE INJURED

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:15.07.2021

A monkey has been creating terror in the hearts of residents and commuters in Ratan Pol area over the past 10 days. The simian, which seems to be injured, has been attacking passersby, but the forest department as well as zoo officials are having a tough time caging it.

The monkey has been creating havoc in areas around Roopam Cinema, Ashok Cinema, Mahkali Vadi, Nagori School, and Gheekanta. It also attacked a safai worker from behind.

Hemraj Parmar was among the dozen-odd people that the monkey attacked. He said, “The residents marked the animal with red dye so that it is easily identifiable. Such is its terror that vendors in the area carry a stick to ensure that the monkey does not get close to them.” Despite this, the monkey managed to bite a vendor on Wednesday. The person was immediately rushed to Civil Hospital.

A senior forest officer said that they identified and located the monkey. However, by the time a team reached the area, people gathered in large numbers, scaring the monkey away. Officials said, “The monkey is limping. Hence, it appears that it had been attacked by a human. This could be why it is attacking people. Once caged, it is likely to kept behind bars permanently.” The officials said that the zoo authorities have been put on alert as the monkey will have to be tranquillized. The officials said a cage has been kept in the area and people are on their toes. The monkey had been spotted on several occasions but has not been caught yet.

“It is not safe to use a tranquillizer in such a dense area. The teams returned late on Wednesday without success. Five teams will be deployed in the area on Thursday to ensure that the monkey is tranquillized as soon as possible,” says District forest officer Sakira Begum.

Tejas Exp to Mumbai back from Aug 7

Tejas Exp to Mumbai back from Aug 7

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:15.07.2021

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will restore the operations of the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Central-Ahmedabad Tejas Express from August 7.

The train will run on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Based on the passenger demand, the operations may be revised.

Officials said that IRCTC will continue to keep the safety of passengers as the paramount consideration. All-round preparations are in place to meet the expectations of people in terms of services and safety and health protocols amid the ongoing pandemic, said officials.

Passengers will have to undergo thermal screening and have their luggage disinfected before boarding the train. Passengers will have to show their Aarogya Setu status when asked.

The train will continue with its halt at Andheri, as permitted by the Western Railway, to facilitate the ease of travel of passengers headed to the Mumbai international airport.

Madurai lab tops state in Covid-testing

Madurai lab tops state in Covid-testing

Padmini.Sivarajah@timesgroup.com

15.07.2021

The virology lab at Madurai Medical College has performed 17.65 lakh RTPCR tests, the highest among all government medical college labs in the state. The government medical college labs in Chennai, including KMC, MMC, Stanley Medical College and Omandurar Medical college, together tested around 17 lakh samples.

Associate professor and lab incharge Dr C Sugumari said the lab with a staff of about100 , including 65 doctors and paramedics besides 45 data entry operators, has been operating round-the-clock since March 2020. With nine RT-PCR testing machines and five RNA extractors, the lab was able to undertake about 12,000 to 15,000 tests daily. During the first wave, they had done about 8,000 tests a day, which was the highest, but in the second wave the sample load gradually increased from11,000 to as many as15,801 a day in June.