Egmore station gets two more escalators

NEWS DIGEST

Egmore station gets two more escalators

17.07.2021

Southern Railway on Friday opened two escalators at Chennai Egmore railway station allowing people to access the Gandhi Irwin Road. The station has five escalators, and the new ones have been installed in the area near the main entrance where people get down from autos and cabs. The facility was inaugurated by M Selvaraj, a commercial assistant retiring this month. Egmore railway station that has 11 platforms handles around 1.2 lakh commuters daily.

Vax priority for pregnant, lactating women & TB patients: Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has announced that pregnant women, lactating mothers and patients with tuberculosis will be given priority at its Covid-19 vaccine centres. GCC has requested these women and patients to get their jabs soon. According to official data, a total of 733 pregnant women, 2,328 lactating women and 143 TB patients have received vaccinations till date.

Financial aid for unemployed youth: The Kancheepuram district employment exchange has invited applications from unemployed youth for its monthly financial assistance scheme. According to the scheme guidelines, youth who did not pass Class X are eligible to get ₹200 as assistance every month, Class XII passed candidates and graduates can get ₹300-₹600 per month. To apply for the assistance, visit www.tnvelaivaaippu.gov.in

‘Semen’ becomes ‘semman’, rapist almost escapes

HC ORDERS 5-YR JAIL

‘Semen’ becomes ‘semman’, rapist almost escapes

Srikkanth.D@timesgroup.com

Chennai:17.07.2021 

A typographical error of ‘semen’ being recorded as ‘semman’ (which means red sand in Tamil) almost allowed a rape accused to go scot-free, before the Madras high court stepped in and reversed his acquittal by a lower court.

Instead of mentioning that a two-and-a-half-year-old girl’s genitals had traces of ‘semen’, the chargesheet mentioned it as ‘semman’ — meaning red soil in the genitals. Citing the ‘dirt’ that might have got stuck as the child might have been playing around, the Tiruvarur district Mahila court freed the offender from the case. Justice P Velmurugan of the Madras HC, however, sentenced S Prakash of Tiruvarur district to five-year jail term and directed the government to pay ₹1 lakh compensation to the girl. In September 2017, Prakash raped the child when her mother stepped out to buy food. On her return, the mother found the child crying and noticed a white liquid on her private parts. She admitted the child to a hospital and lodged a complaint. The prosecution told the HC that while recording evidence before the trial court, the word ‘semen’ in English was typed as ‘semman’ in Tamil.

‘Culprits are escaping due to tech reasons’

Taking advantage of the mistake committed by a typist during trial, the defence had argued that what the mother found on her child was ‘red colour soil’ (semman) and no semen was found in the child’s undergarments.

Justice Velmurugan said the investigating officer should have made more effort, and added: “Culprits are escaping due to technical reasons and, unfortunately, investigation wing is also not up to the standard. The trial court also, at times, are not applying their minds and exercising their discretionary power either to direct for reinvestigation or searching for proof beyond reasonable doubt, giving benefit of doubt to the accused.”

Justice Velmurugan said in cases like these delay in filing FIR should not be fatal to the case of the prosecution. Pointing out that the police complaint clearly showed that the woman had meant white colour fluid and that it was the typist who wrote the English word ‘semen’ as ‘semman’ in ‘Tamil, the judge said, “admittedly, the defence side has taken flimsy defence that the mother stated as “semman colour.”

₹215 paid for one Covishield vax shot, ₹225 for Covaxin

₹215 paid for one Covishield vax shot, ₹225 for Covaxin

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:17.07.2021 

The fresh vaccine orders placed by the Centre are at a revised price of ₹215 for Covishield and ₹225 for a dose of Covaxin, according to an official source.

While the Centre was earlier procuring vaccines at ₹150 a dose, it had indicated that it will revise vaccine prices after the changed procurement plan came into effect from June 21. “We are on path to achieving the target of 50 crore doses by July 31, this is crucial towards meeting our target coverage by end of this year,” the senior official said. Nearly 40 crore doses were administered across the country till 10pm Friday. On availability of Moderna vaccine, the government said talks are going on.

Discussions have not yet concluded, says V K Paul

While the Centre has indicated an availability of 13.5 crore doses for July, a fresh order of 66 crore doses for government procurement along with an additional advance payment already made by the Centre to reserve 30 crore doses of Biological E’s Covid vaccine are expected to boost supply.

“The logistic management has to be linked at production and availability at field level, and while we appreciate the concern of states to get more vaccine doses, we must also appreciate how government of India is increasing production and parallelly ensuring that 75% of doses are given free of cost to states,” health ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal said.

“...to and fro (talks) are going on over the contractual specifics. Discussions have not yet concluded. Currently, they have to respond to some of the points we have made and we will take it forward,” NITI Aayog memberhealth Dr VK Paul said.

Exempt us from giving med seats for all-India quota: TN

Exempt us from giving med seats for all-India quota: TN

Request To Centre May Free Up 1,700 Addl Seats In State

Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:17.07.2021 

Besides demanding exemption from NEET, Tamil Nadu has sought the Centre’s nod to free itself from allocating UG, PG and super-speciality medical seats in state-run institutions to All India Quota (AIQ), health minister Ma Subramanian has said. If the request is accepted, more than 1,700 more medical seats, including 500 MBBS seats, will be available for TN students, he said. But the decision may also deny TN students the option of getting into government medical colleges of other states. Every year, TN surrenders nearly 500 of 3,400 MBBS seats from 25 government medical colleges, 950 of 1,938 postgraduate seats in 14 TN government medical colleges and all the 184 DM seats and 95 MCh seats across 12 colleges to the central pool under AIQ.

Class XII state board results on July 19

TN state board Class 12 results will be declared at 11am on July 19. Students can access their results with DOB and roll number on the following websites: www.tnresults.nic.in, www.dge1.tn.nic.in, www.dge2.tn.nic.in, www.dge.tn.gov.in. Students will also receive their marks through SMS on their mobile numbers. P 3

‘Exemptions from AIQ seat-sharing sought’

A day after meeting Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya in New Delhi, Subramanian told reporters that as a part of the 13 demands from the state, the government has sought exemptions from seat-sharing for AIQ. “We are awaiting permission from the National Medical Commission to sanction the admission of 1,650 students to the11 new medical colleges in Tamil Nadu. Once we get the permission, we will start discussions regarding seatsharing,” he told reporters.

State governments surrender 15% of MBBS seats, 50% of PG medical seats and entire super-specialty seats for All India Quota, to enable the central government to admit students through a common pool. The medical counselling committee, under the directorate-general of medical services, admits students through a centralised online counselling based on marks obtained in NEET. If any of the surrendered seats remain vacant after two rounds of counselling, they are returned to the state.

If the state decides not to share seats with the Centre, then admission to all these medical seats will be done by the state selection committee attached to the directorate of medical education following merit in NEET and 69% rule of reservation. “This way we can ensure all seats in the state are reserved for students belonging to our state,” Subramanian said. “Admission to all super-specialty seats we created in our colleges will also be reserved for our students,” he said.

Doctors’ bodies and several political parties, including AIADMK, have been demanding 50% reservation of seats for OBC students, as per the 69% reservation formula in Tamil Nadu in the centralised counselling. “Many students from our state go to other states to study medicine after clearing PG NEET. They will lose that opportunity,” said former health minister C Vijayabaskar. Tamil Nadu has a large number of seats in government colleges, he said, adding: “We have to study the benefits of not sharing seats before making a policy decision.”

Supreme Court Sets Aside Allahabad HC Direction To Give Retrospective Effect To Enhancement Of Retirement Age In NOIDA

Supreme Court Sets Aside Allahabad HC Direction To Give Retrospective Effect To Enhancement Of Retirement Age In NOIDA: The Supreme Court has set aside a judgment of the Allahabad High Court which directed that retros

More Tamil Nadu cities included for NEET says Centre, as state renews plea to scrap the exam

More Tamil Nadu cities included for NEET says Centre, as state renews plea to scrap the exam

The board exams for class XII were cancelled owing to the pandemic and Tamil Nadu had announced the criteria for admitting students to colleges.

Published: 15th July 2021 08:00 PM 

By PTI

NEW DELHI/CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian on Thursday demanded that the Centre scrap the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and allow the state to fill admissions to all professional courses on the basis of class XII marks.

The board exams for class XII were cancelled owing to the pandemic and Tamil Nadu had announced the criteria for admitting students to colleges.

It urged the central government to cancel all national level entrance exams like NEET, as it did with the CBSE board exams.

During his visit to the national capital, Subramanian called on Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and discussed with him several issues pertaining to Tamil Nadu, including scrapping of NEET.

"During the discussion, we explained about the recommendation of the retired judge A K Rajan committee while putting forth our demands. The union minister assured to examine the demands," Subramanian later told reporters.

The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu last month constituted the panel, headed by retired high court judge AK Rajan, to analyse if NEET had an adverse impact on students from backward classes and if so, the committee would recommend remedial measures to the government.

It had submitted its report on Wednesday, with Justice Rajan saying majority of representations don't want NEET.

Explaining to Subrmanian about the background of the Supreme Court's directions on conducting NEET, Pradhan told him that for the convenience of Tamil Nadu students, four new cities--Chengalpattu, Virudhunagar, Dindigul and Tiruppur have been added for conducting NEET.

"Also, shared with him that to cater to regional aspirations, number of languages being offered this year have been increased to 13 from 11 with the addition of Malayalam and Punjabi. The exam is already being conducted in Tamil language," Pradhan tweeted after the meeting.

Subramanian, referring to Pradhan's explanation, said "the very issue is about conducting NEET and also the syllabus and not about the examination centres. We had said that NEET saw the suicides of 13 students (in TN)". Pradhan had understood Tamil Nadu's concerns as his own state Odisha encountered problems due to NEET," Subramanian added.

Tamil Nadu was in favour of cancelling NEET and all national level entrance exams as conducting such tests during the pandemic was detrimental to the health and well-being of the students.

"Tamil Nadu government may be allowed to fill all professional seats including MBBSDSAYUSH courses on the basis of class XII marks alone," a memorandum submitted to Pradhan by Subramanian said.

It further stated it has been the "consistent and considered opinion" of Tamil Nadu that class XII marks alone be the basis for higher education admission and "conducting NEET deprives opportunities for rural students, majority of whom study in their mother tongue and lack resourcesaccess to coaching institutions."

Abolition of NEET is an election promise of the M K Stalin-led DMK which won the April 6 Assembly polls in the state.

Subramanian, who later called on Union Health minister Mansukh Mandaviya, said he had demanded 12 crore doses of covid vaccine to cover about six crore beneficiaries in Tamil Nadu.

The state had so far obtained about 1.70 crore covid vaccines.

"We told the union minister that we require 12 crore doses of the vaccines to provide two doses to six crore people. He has assured to fulfill the state's requirement," Subramanian said.

During the meeting, he presented 13 demands to the union health minister, including establishing a new AIIMS at Coimbatore besides expediting the Madurai AIIMS project.

The Union Minister had told him that he would look into the matter.

Also, he responded positively to the state's request for drugs to treat Black Fungus and assured to release Rs 800 crore to help the state government to launch appropriate measures to prevent the third Coronavirus wave.

"Health Minister, Government of Tamil Nadu, M Subramanian met me to discuss various issues of Tamil Nadu, including NEET (UG) 2021. Explained to him the background of the Supreme Court's directions in this regard."

"Also, shared with him that to cater to regional aspirations, the number of languages being offered this year have been increased, with the addition of Malayalam and Punjabi. The exam is already being conducted in the Tamil language," Pradhan said in a series of tweets.

The number of cities has increased to 18 from 14 last year.

The number of examination centres will also be increased, he said.

The meeting comes a day after a high-level committee, led by retired Madras High Court judge A K Rajan, handed over its report to Chief Minister M K Stalin on the impact of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) in Tamil Nadu and related issues due to its implementation.

A petition in the Madras High Court, seeking to quash the Tamil Nadu government notification, constituting the high-level committee on NEET, has been dismissed by the court.

Most parties, including the ruling DMK and main opposition AIADMK, are on the same page on NEET and have been demanding that the test be scrapped, arguing that it went against social justice, rural and government school students.

The NEET-UG which was earlier scheduled on August 1 has now been postponed to September 12.

Resistance remains, but it’s a NEET solution this year

Resistance remains, but it’s a NEET solution this year

Students glad their preparation won’t go in vain after Class 12 exams were scrapped

Published: 16th July 2021 04:55 AM 

By Express News Service

CHENNAI: Though NEET is being vehemently opposed in the State, students are relieved at the announcement that the exam will be held on September 12 this year.

“We were getting worried as no date was announced. We didn’t know how medical colleges would admit students if the exam was not conducted this year. We have been preparing for it for the past two years,” said V Saraswathy, a NEET aspirant.

Not all students were happy that their Class 12 exams were cancelled and they would be evaluated based on their Class 10 and 11 marks and Class 12 pre-board exams. Many were worried the evaluation formulae decided would create problems in getting admission into professional courses.

Even those who oppose NEET are of the view that cancelling the exam this year would make things worse for students. “The Class 12 exams were cancelled, and the devised evaluation system does not do justice to those who improved their performance in Class 12. If even NEET is cancelled, it would become chaotic and would only add to the students’ burden,” said Parathasarathy D, father of a NEET aspirant.

Staff at coaching centres also feel NEET would be favourable for students this year as the National Testing Agency (NTA) has introduced changes in the exam pattern for NEET-UGUG 2021. The changes were made to rationalise school education boards’ decision to reduce the syllabus this year. In NEET (UG)-2021, each subject will be divided into two sections.

Section A will have 35 questions and Section B will have 15. In Section B, students will only have to attempt 10 questions. The total number of questions remains the same, and all questions will be in the multiple-choice format. “The new pattern will favour average students and they can easily score full marks,” said Sharath Kumar, a faculty at a NEET coaching centre.