MTC cuts back on small bus service after losing market share to autos

R. Srikanth

CHENNAI, FEBRUARY 02, 2019 00:00 IST

Out of favour:A combination of reasons has led to the MTC slowly reducing the number of small buses .File photo

With demand flagging, the corporation finds it is not profitable to operate the fleet

For a short while, immediately after their introduction, small buses were all the rage in suburban areas. No longer. Share autos have once again become the go-to choice for those looking for last-mile connectivity. The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) is now slowly reducing the number of small buses on the roads. In some areas, there are no longer any.

MTC initially had a fleet of 100 small buses, which it increased to 200, based on demand from interior areas in the city. Several localities like Pallikaranai, Nanganallur, West Velachery, Chromepet, Guduvanchery, West Mambalam, parts of Saidapet, Mogappair, Moolakadai, Retteri and MKB Nagar benefitted from the introduction of small buses.

Multiple reasons

But now commuters are picking share autos and other modes of transport over MTC’s small buses.

A combination of reasons has led to this state of affairs — the increase in the number of share autos, an inadequate number of small buses, uneconomical routes, hike in wages of drivers and conductors and, to some extent, Chennai Metro beginning to operate its own share autos. A senior MTC official said that, on average, 180 small buses are being operated daily. The main reason for the administration losing interest in operating small buses is that they are no longer financially viable.

M. Raghavan, a resident of Nanganallur, pointed out that the frequency of S85 (Alandur Metro to Velachery) and S11 (Alandur Metro to Moovarasanpet) had been reduced.

Snake found in mid-day meal of government school in Maharashtra

ANI

Published  Feb 1, 2019, 1:24 pm IST

A government school in Nanded came under fire after a snake was found in the mid-day meal that was being served to students.

The incident took place on Thursday in Garagwhan Zilla Parishad primary school located in Hadgaon tehsil of Nanded district (Photo:ANI)

Nanded: A government school in Nanded came under fire after a snake was found in the mid-day meal that was being served to students.

There are no reports so far if any student has consumed the meal.

The incident took place on Thursday in Garagwhan Zilla Parishad primary school located in Hadgaon tehsil of Nanded district after the school staff started serving the 'khichdi', they found the snake in the large vessel.

Soon as the matter came into light, the school administration stopped serving the meal and prevented around 80 girl-student from consuming it.

The parents of girl reached school and demanded the woman who made the meal to be terminated and legal action school be taken against her.

When contacted, the Nanded Education Department officials denied the claims and said that incident never happened. The district administration is yet to take action.

The National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (Mid-Day Meal Scheme) was launched in 1995. The objective of this scheme was to give the boost to the universalisation of primary education and impact on the nutrition of students in primary classes.

Implemented around 1996, the 'khichdi' is part of the weekly nutrition menu for the children in all government schools in the state to discourage dropouts, especially among girls, with over 1.25 crore students benefiting from it daily.

Anna University to conduct supplementary exam for final year students

DECCAN CHRONICLE. | A RAGU RAMAN

PublishedFeb 2, 2019, 3:11 am IST

It further passed another resolution to help the university students who are studying under CBCS.

Anna University

Chennai: Anna University is planning to conduct a supplementary exam for final year students studying under Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) on its four campuses.

The academic council of Anna University relaxed arrear rules for the students studying under CBCS (2017 regulations) in affiliated engineering colleges and allowed them to write arrears immediately following semester exams.

It further passed another resolution to help the university students who are studying under CBCS.

Under the CBCS, if the students failed to clear a subject, they have to reappear along with regular students when that course is offered next time. It means if a student could not clear a course in an odd semester, he or she can only reappear for the exam when the course is offered next year.

"The new rule will help the university students to finish their courses within the four years instead of spending an extra year if they fail to clear the subjects in seventh or eighth semesters," a member of the academic council said.

The Choice Based Credit System was introduced at four campuses of Anna University - College of Engineering, Guindy, Madras Institute of Technology, Chrompet, Alagappa College of Technology and School of Architecture and Planning in Guindy - in 2015.

"The first batch of students studying under the CBCS system now graduated to the fourth year. As per the existing rules, if they fail to clear any subject in seventh or eighth semesters, they have to study an extra year to clear the arrears," sources from the university said.

So, the university plans to introduce supplementary exams for the courses they register in seventh or eighth semesters.

"We will introduce open day revaluation for November/December 2018 exams. If any students fail to clear after the revaluation, we want to give them an opportunity to finish their course in the current year itself," officials from the university said.

Under the open day revaluation, the university plans to conduct the revaluation in front of the students. "Conducting open day revaluation will be a challenging task. We will try that out for odd semester exams (November/December) after getting approval from the Syndicate," they said.

Generally, the students were given offer letters in the campus placements when they study in the seventh or eighth semester.

"This move would help them to finish the courses and retain their employment," professors said. The internal exam marks also will carry over to the supplementary exams.

No negative marking in competitive exams, says Madras high court

DECCAN CHRONICLE.

PublishedFeb 2, 2019, 3:01 am IST

Justice R.Mahadevan gave the ruling while disposing of the petition filed by S.Nelson Prabhakar, a student.

Madras high court

Chennai: The Madras high court has held that the system of negative marking in the competitive examination has to be done away with, in as much as the same perforce requires reconsideration.

Justice R.Mahadevan gave the ruling while disposing of the petition filed by S.Nelson Prabhakar, a student.

The judge said the very system of awarding negative marks is improper and against principles of fairness, equality and equity. Students, who take part in competitive examinations, come from different strata of society. Those hailing from affluent families can afford to take private coaching and enhance their knowledge and techniques and the same cannot be expected from meritorious students coming from economically weaker background.

There has to be a level playing field in examination in general, especially in competitive examination. Negative marking acts a weight behind the mental strength of a student and the student approaches every question with an element of fear, the judge added.

The judge said he/she has to be doubly cautious, while choosing the answer for the question. In other words, a student has to be confident about the answer. Such confidence of knowing each and every answer cannot be expected from the students, meritorious or otherwise. If there was no negative mark, the students were given an opportunity to take a wide thinking and apply intelligent guessing.

This practice of taking an intelligent guess indeed, develops the brain of a student and builds his/her confidence to tackle any situation in future, the judge added.

Tamil Nadu to submit proposal to accomodate 108 Ponnaiyah students

DECCAN CHRONICLE. | J STALIN

PublishedFeb 2, 2019, 3:15 am IST

The Board of Governors also decided to permit the state government to relocate all these students to self financing medical colleges.

Madras high court

Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the state government to submit a fresh proposal within two weeks, to the Board of Governors in Supersession of Medical Council of India for accommodating 108 students of defunct Ponnaiyah Ramajayam Institute of Medical Sciences (PRIMS) in 22 government medical colleges in the state.

A division bench comprising Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and P. Rajamanickam gave the directive while passing interim orders on an appeal filed by the state government, challenging an order of a single judge, directing the state government to accommodate the students of Ponnaiyah medical college in government medical colleges.

The bench said on receipt of such proposal from the state government, the Board of Governors in supersession of MCI, shall consider the said proposal on merits and in accordance with the relevant rules and regulations of the Indian Medical Council Act and forward the same to the ministry of health and family welfare department, Government of India within a further period of two weeks thereafter.

The ministry of health and family welfare of Government of India, on receipt of the said proposal from the Board of Governors, shall consider the same on merits and in accordance with law and pass appropriate orders within a further period of two weeks from the date of receipt of the proposal from the Board of Governors and the decision taken in that regard by the said ministry, shall be kept in a sealed cover and to be produced before this court on March 28, 2019, the bench added.

Additional advocate general Narmada Sampath, appearing for the state submitted that pursuant to an interim order of this court, the state government addressed a communication to the Union government stating that in so far as government medical colleges were concerned, seats were already been filled up and therefore, the government was not in a position to accommodate the students of Ponnaiyah medical college in the second year and 12 self financing medical colleges were willing to accommodate these students and also furnished their feasibility report to accommodate 10 to 15 students in each of the colleges and sought necessary permission for the same.

The Board of Governors also decided to permit the state government to relocate all these students to self financing medical colleges. However, despite such an accommodation, the students moved this court and a single judge passed an order directing the government to accommodate the students in government colleges. Therefore, the present appeal has been filed, she added.

Senior counsels P.Wilson and S.Silambanan submitted that as per the essentiality certificate, in the event of medical colleges fail to provide infrastructure facilities as per MCI norms and fresh admissions were stopped or the college was closed, the state government shall take over the responsibility of the students already admitted in the college and accommodate them in government medical colleges.

The private colleges referred to in the proposal sent by the state government also lack same infrastructural facilities in the event of increase in accommodation to accommodate the students and the correct and true facts have not been brought to the knowledge of MCI as well as the Union government. 108 students were on the street for no fault on their part. Therefore, the directions given by the single judge may not be stayed, they added.

In its order, the bench said on going through the directions given in the impugned order, this court was of the view that a positive direction has been given to the Union government to pass necessary orders increasing the number of seats in government medical colleges and approve the accommodation of students based on the decision of the Board of Governors. The Indian Medical Council Act and rules and regulations framed therein, clog the Medical Council of India as well as ministry concerned to act on the proposal in terms of such statutory provisions and therefore, this court was of the prima facie view that there cannot be any positive direction, directing the said authorities to act in a particular manner.

However, taking into consideration the plight of the students of PRIMS and for no fault on their part as to the misery being undergone by them on account of the fact that PRIMS was no longer functioning on account of lack of infrastructural facilities, this court was of the view that issuance of the above directions would meet the ends of justice, the bench added.

Give guest faculty Rs 50,000 instead of Rs 9,000: UGC to Karnataka government

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked the state government to fix a minimum salary for guest faculty working in government degree colleges and various universities in the state.

Published: 30th January 2019 04:30 AM 

UGC head office (File photo | PTI)
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked the state government to fix a minimum salary for guest faculty working in government degree colleges and various universities in the state.

As per the order issued by the UGC, the state has to fix Rs 1,500 per day or Rs 50,000 per month as remuneration for guest faculty. They are currently getting an honorarium of Rs 9,000-12,000 a month, which is paid once in three months.

Over 12,000 teachers work as guest faculties at government degree colleges and at universities in the state. They had been demanding an increase in the honorarium and fixing it on par with UGC teachers, for which they approached authorities at all levels in the government.

The decision for the UGC order, issued on the basis of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations, was taken in the recently-held 537th meeting. The educational qualifications would be the same as prescribed for the recruitment of assistant professors.

The government and universities have to set up a separate committee comprising four experts for recruitment. However, guest faculties will not be eligible to claim gratuity or provident fund.

These guidelines and the order should be implemented from the 2019-20 academic year, which begins in June.

Thug monkey bites 20, Nagapattinam villagers flee homes and hide in temple

In a real-life episode of man versus wild, at a village in Nagapattinam, 400 people have accepted defeat at the hands of a lone monkey. 

Published: 01st February 2019 01:32 AM 

Monkey photo used for representational purpose only. (Photo | PTI)

By Antony Fernando

Express News Service

NAGAPATTINAM: In a real-life episode of man versus wild, at a village in Nagapattinam, 400 people have accepted defeat at the hands of a lone monkey.

Many residents of the Thennalakudi village in Sirkazhi were forced to leave their homes on Thursday and find shelter elsewhere, thanks to a rogue monkey, which has bitten over 20 villagers and injured dozens of cattle in the last 20 days.

“My 65-year-old grandmother was bitten by the monkey a few days ago,” says S Revathi, one of the villagers.


“The wound, on her right hand, was so deep that her veins had been severed. We took her to Puducherry government hospital but the doctors there suggested that we take her to a private facility,” says Revathi.

On Thursday, a third of the village locked up their houses and took shelter inside a Kaliamman temple on the outskirts of the village. The rest remained inside their houses.

“People are scared of even taking their cattle out for grazing,” says village head TV Kaliyamurthy. While forest officials tried to capture the simian thrice, with nets and traps, it managed to give them all a miss. They have now set up a camp in Thennalakudi to catch the monkey.

“Judging by its worn appearance and intense dislike of humans, the monkey has probably escaped from captivity after suffering abuse,” says ranger Karuppasamy.