Lockdown extended for 2 wks; edu institutes to remain shut: Stalin

Lockdown extended for 2 wks; edu institutes to remain shut: Stalin

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:17.07.2021

The Tamil Nadu government on Friday announced extending lockdown by two weeks ending 6am on July 31.

In an official statement, chief minister M K Stalin said that certain activities, remained prohibited, including inter-state public and private transport except Union territory of Puducherry, international air travel except the purposes permitted by the Union home ministry, cinema theatres, all liquor bars, swimming pools, all social, political gatherings, entertainment, sports and cultural events, schools and colleges and zoological parks.

“A maximum of 50 persons will be permitted for marriage events and 20 persons in funeral/last rites in a bid to contain the spread,” the chief minister said. The already permitted activities will continue in the state, except containment zones.

Stalin said that industrial training institutes (ITIs) and industrial schools, and typewriting/ shorthand institutes shall function with 50% students at a time and on a rotation basis from Monday. Teachers will be allowed to work in schools to facilitate admission of students, distribution of books and preparation of syllabus.

A maximum of 50 persons will be permitted for marriage events and 20 persons in funeral/last rites in a bid to contain the spread

MK STALIN  Chief Minister

Every decimal to count as no rounding off Class XII marks

Every decimal to count as no rounding off Class XII marks

Govt Move To Make College Admissions Hassle-free

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:17.07.2021 

A decimal point in Class XII marks can decide the fate of a student seeking admission in a college. That’s because marks will not be rounded off this year. This time, subject marks will have two decimal points to break the tie in ranking for engineering and arts and science seats.

An official in the school education department told TOI that Class XII marks will have two decimal points as per the government order. The department is introducing decimal points to avoid confusion in college admissions.

The directorate of government examinations (DGE) on Friday announced that the Class XII results will be declared on July19 and students can download their marksheets from July 22.

The state government cancelled the Class XII board exams due to Covid-19 second wave. As per the expert committee’s suggestion, it was decided to give weightage to Class X and XI board exams and Class XII practical and internal assessment. The Class X marks will carry a weightage of 50% while Class XI will carry 20% and Class XII will carry 30% weightage while computing marks.

Career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi said there will be a lot of students in the same cut-off due to the weightage system followed this year for awarding marks to Class XII students.

“We suggested giving decimal points to break ties in deciding rank for admissions to professional courses including engineering, agriculture courses. National Testing Agency is giving JEE (Main) results in up to seven decimal points. State government has decided to give results in two decimal points and I welcome the move as it would partially solve problems during admissions,” he said.

He further suggested looking at Class XI maths, physics and fourth subject marks in addition to Class XII marks in maths, physics and fourth subjects, date of birth and random number to break tie while ranking the students. “There are possibilities that many students in Class XII would have scored full marks in maths,” he added.

G J Manohar, principal of MCC Higher Secondary School in Chetpet, said the move would help the colleges during admissions.

Some principals differed and said many students will lose the advantage of getting two or three extra marks. N Vijayan, principal of Zion Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Tambaram, said students may lose three to four marks by not rounding off their marks in each subject. “The universal rule is to discard marks less than 0.5 and add one mark to more than 0.5 mark. Marks with decimal points may lead to some confusion,” he said.

Agnes Rita, principal of GRT Mahalakshmi Vidhyalaya Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Ashok Nagar, too said it would be better to round off the marks.

We suggested giving decimal points to break ties in deciding rank for admissions for professional courses including those in engineering and agriculture. The National Testing Agency is giving JEE (Main) results in up to seven decimal points

JAYAPRAKASH GANDHI

Career consultant

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