Centre denying OBCs thousands of medical college seats: DMK tells SC ‘Reservation Denied Under AIQ Scheme’

Centre denying OBCs thousands of medical college seats: DMK tells SC

‘Reservation Denied Under AIQ Scheme’

AmitAnand.Choudhary@timesgroup.com

22.10.2021

The DMK accused the Centre of depriving OBC candidates thousands of seats in medical colleges by not providing them reservation in All India Quota (AIQ) over the years during which SCs/STs candidates availed the benefits. It urged the Supreme Court to dismiss plea filed against granting reservation to OBC.

The AIQ scheme was introduced in 1986 under the direction of the apex court to provide domicile-free merit based opportunities to students from any state to get admission in a good medical college located in another state. AIQ at present consists of 15% of total available under graduate seats and 50% of total available post graduate seats in government medical colleges. Initially there was no reservation in AIQ up to 2007 when 15% reservation for SCs and 7.5% for STs were introduced. Reservation for OBCs was not given and the governemnt has now decided to provide a 27% quota on the direction of Madras high court which passed the order on a plea of DMK. Reservation for EWS has also been notified in AIQ.

In a written submission filed in the apex court in the ongoing legal battle for OBC/ EWS reservation in AIQ, the political party said, "The OBC candidates have been deprived of thousands of seats by the Union of India in the previous years. Vide the impugned notice the Union has set right the anomaly for OBCs after a period of 13 years. The granting of impugned reservations of 27% for OBC’s in the SCS-AIQ ( All India Quota seats State contributed Seats) would benefit around 4,000 students this year and would cause a positive domino effect on the society at large".

"It was only after initiating contempt petition before the High Court by DMK, Union Government conceded to the legal fight initiated by DMK, and issued the notice declaring that 27% reservation to OBC in all state contributed seats to All India Quota. The Union in the counter affidavit filed before the Madras high court termed that granting of reservation as a policy decision even though it is only complying with the orders of high court," it said.

The party said that granting reservation is to bring the deprived section to the mainstream and to bring equality. "It is submitted that social justice is a facet of equality which is a fundamental right and policy of reservations is to setoff inequality, bridge the gap between equals and un-equals, remove manifest imbalance for those lagging behind, and remedy the past historical discrimination and injustice done to a social class of people. It is an affirmative action and positive declaration," it said.

Opposing the plea for quashing of Centre's notification, the party said that it is not sucking off seats as described by the petitioners.

Why you will need one more shot to stay safe from Covid

A SHOT OF HOPE

Why you will need one more shot to stay safe from Covid

Covid vaccines were made in the middle of a pandemic with the mantra of ‘less is more’, but now that supplies have improved, experts say it’s time to consider giving three doses for optimum protection

Abhilash.Gaur@timesgroup.com

22.10.2021

Half of India has now got at least one Covid shot, but in Israel the government is stocking vaccines for a possible fourth dose. Through the summer it gave third shots to the 60-plus group, and in late-August made everyone over 12 eligible.

At the other end of the vaccination scale, only 7% of people in Africa have got a shot. Israel’s vaccine push, therefore, seems excessive. Without naming any country, the WHO has called booster dosing against Covid ‘immoral’. “To start boosters is really the worst we can do as a global community,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Nevertheless, more and more rich countries are giving booster shots and, maybe, you too have been wondering when you will get yours. Here’s why booster dosing for Covid has started looking inevitable.

FADING IMMUNITY

Rich countries started giving third doses because infections among the fully vaccinated were rising, supporting the findings of studies that showed immunity created by vaccines declines within months. For example, a British study found the AstraZeneca/Covishield vaccine’s ability to prevent mild Covid after the second dose fell from 67% to 47% after 20 weeks.

From the start of the pandemic scientists have said vaccines that turn Covid into a mild flu-like illness – even if they don’t prevent infection – would be good enough, but the UK research shows vaccines also lose some of their ability to prevent serious illness and hospitalisation with time. Overall, the protection against severe disease and hospitalisation slipped from 95% to 77%, a BBC report says.

The sharpest decline in protection occurred in the 80-plus age group while the younger lot were well protected with even two doses. That’s why, for now, the UK has recommended a third dose for only those over 50.

Likewise, data from Israel shows people over 60 who got their second dose more than five months ago are at three times higher risk of infection than those vaccinated recently. However, two weeks after the third dose their risk of infection reduces by 11.3 times, David O’Connor, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Wisconsin, writes in The Guardian.

WHY IMMUNITY WANES

In an article for The Wall Street Journal, Jo Craven McGinty says vaccine effectiveness depends on more than one factor, including the strength of the initial immune response, rate of antibody decay, the pathogen’s tendency to mutate, and also the part of the body it infects. That’s why measles shots are good for life while flu shots are needed every year.

She says Covid is still so new that scientists don’t have an exact measure of its “threshold of protection” or the level of immunity needed to prevent illness. So it’s hard to say with certainty whether two doses are enough, or a third will suffice, or whether we might need booster shots every year.

Also, the Covid virus mutates a lot more than the measles and chicken pox viruses. There have been eight major variants, including Delta, in less than two years. The Beta variant first found in South Africa reduced the efficacy of all vaccines tested against it.

Another problem with Covid, McGinty says, is that the virus replicates in the lower as well as the upper respiratory tracts. Vaccines can prevent severe disease because they don’t allow it to take root in the lungs and lower body, where the blood circulation is good, but the nostrils remain prone to infection as the blood circulation is not so good there.

Also, vaccines that contain a live but weakened form of the disease-causing germ (measles and chickenpox, for example) provide the longest protection, but none of the Covid vaccines is of this type. The mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna don’t contain a virus at all while those like Covaxin have the dead virus.

3 JABS NEW NORMAL?

While the WHO frowns upon booster dosing, Katherine J. Wu points out in The Atlantic that the third dose might not be a booster, in fact. She says a booster, strictly speaking, is a shot given to shore up flagging immunity. For example, you need a tetanus booster once every 10 years.

While Covid vaccines were originally tested with two doses – because they were developed swiftly in a pandemic – it is possible that three shots might have been the proper “primary” course. The hepatitis B vaccine, for example, requires a course of three shots. Each dose creates and increases the “quantity, quality, and durability of that defence”.

What if stopping at the second dose means denying yourself full protection? Maybe the third dose isn’t so “immoral” after all.

As O’Connor says, “The newer data suggests that a primary immunisation series followed by an additional dose months later should be the new standard protocol.”

NTA: Ensured no board’s students had advantage in NEET-UG

NTA: Ensured no board’s students had advantage in NEET-UG

Manash.Gohain@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:22.10.2021

After the Supreme Court dismissed a petition on Wednesday demanding that this year’s National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEETUG) be re-conducted, officials pointed out that the exam had been tweaked to ensure no educational board’s students had an advantage. They also pointed out that students’ concerns on answer papers being tampered with had been dealt with.

Officials at the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the examination, said they had considered state education boards’ syllabi while framing questions for this year’s examination. “There have been concerns that the syllabus has been pitched high and is based on a particular board. Therefore, the NTA involved experts from state boards in the process and translators are sourced from state governments,” said an NTA official, who did not wish to be identified.

Officials said a team of the School Education Department of the Tamil Nadu government which analysed this year’s question papers found that 163 of the 200 questions (82%) were from the state board’s syllabus. “A conscious effort was made to ensure the alignment of the question papers with various state boards,” said Vineet Joshi, director-general of NTA.

The entrance exam for medical courses came under a cloud after Tamil Nadu passed a bill in September to exempt the state’s students from having to take the exam. Among the allegations against the NEET-UG is that it favours students from the CBSE board and forces students of state boards to rely on coaching classes, which is unfavourable for poorer students. The results of this year’s exam will be announced next week.

Full report on www.toi.in

Explain reason behind fixing ₹8L income limit for EWS: SC to Centre

Explain reason behind fixing ₹8L income limit for EWS: SC to Centre

AmitAnand.Choudhary@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:22.10.2021

The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed displeasure over the Centre not explaining on what basis it fixed the income limit of ₹8 lakh for granting reservation to economically weaker sections (EWS) and directed it to file an affidavit, disclosing whether any exercise was undertaken by it before taking the decision and clarify the rationality behind fixing the limit.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud, Vikram Nath and B V Nagarathna raised questions on how the same income limit of ₹8 lakh could be fixed for both EWS and Other Backward Classes (OBC) categories to be eligible for reservation and sought an explanation from the governemnt. It said there is a social and educational backwardness attached with the OBCs and it is presumed that their backwardness subsides with economic advancement. The EWS category, on the other hand, is different and there is no concept of social and educational backwardness, the bench said while asking the Centre on how the same income limit can be fixed for both, which may be arbitrary.

Incidentally, at the previous hearing on October 7, the bench had raised the same queries and asked the Centre to come up with its explanation. As the government did not file any reply, the bench passed a formal order directing it to file an affidavit and adjourned the hearing.

Full report on www.toi-.in

Centre hikes dearness allowance & relief by 3%

Centre hikes dearness allowance & relief by 3%

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:22.10.2021

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved 3% hike in the dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) for central government employees and pensioners “to compensate for price rise”. The hike will benefit around 47.14 lakh central government employees and 68.62 lakh pensioners just ahead of the Diwali when people have additional expenses.

This latest DA instalment to the serving employees and DR to the pensioners will be effective from July 1, 2021, Union information and broadcasting minister, Anurag Thakur said while sharing the details of the Cabinet decision with reporters.

He said after this hike, the allowances will increase to 31% of the basic pay and the decision will have an additional burden of around ₹9,488.7 crore per annum on the exchequer.

Prior to this, the Centre had approved an increase in DA and DR from 17% to 28%.

In view of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government had frozen additional instalments of the DA and DR in 2020 due to a shortfall in revenue collection after the pandemic devastated the economy.

Full report on www.toi.in

Woman rescues infant monkey from attacker

Woman rescues infant monkey from attacker

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:22.10.2021

A lawyer on Wednesday rescued an infant monkey from a gypsy woman who was beating the animal aboard an EMU train from Tambaram. The woman later handed over the simian to forest officials.

Vinotha Varshini, who works in the legal wing of International Clearing and Shipping Agency in Parry’s, boarded the train at Tambaram and noticed a group of gypsies getting into the EMU train at Nungambakkam railway station.

One of the women was beating the animal with a stick, Vinotha said. One end of a rope was tied to one of its legs and a boy held on to the other end. “As the train entered Chetpet railway station, I quickly snatched the monkey from the boy and got off as the train stopped,” she told TOI. The group reacted quickly and hopped off too, surrounding the lawyer. Despite the monkey holding the lawyer tightly around her neck, one woman caught hold of the animal’s leg and tried to pull it away, causing the animal to cry out in pain. This led to other commuters coming to Vinotha’s aid.

RPF personnel patrolling the platform noticed the ruckus and stepped in. Police allowed the lawyer to proceed with the monkey. Vinotha went straight to the forest department office at Velachery and handed the monkey over to officials. Veterinarians are treating the monkey for malnutrition. Officials said the monkey will be raised in an enclosure till it is old enough to survive on its own in the wild.

IN SAFE HANDS: Lawyer Vinotha Varshini with the monkey she rescued

Flyer found smoking on plane, held

Flyer found smoking on plane, held

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:22.10.2021

A passenger who was found smoking on a Dubai-Chennai flight was handed over to the Chennai airport police by the IndiGo flight crew.

In a complaint on Wednesday, the crew said Mohammad Rafiq, 53, a native of Thanjavur district who had been working in Dubai for three years, picked up an argument with the crew after some members found that he was smoking in the toilet on board.

On Tuesday night immediately after the crew served dinner to the passengers, Rafiq is believed to have gone to the restroom and had a smoke. Smoke sensors in the restroom alerted crew members who told the passenger that he cannot smoke during the flight. This led to an argument.

Soon after the plane landed at the Chennai airport, the passenger was picked up for questioning by the airport police and was detained in the police station.