17-yr-old killed in Bihar for attending school

Ajay Kumar Pandey TNN

Muzaffarpur:02.04.2019

A group of seven men allegedly killed a 17-year-old girl at Sanpura village of Muzaffarpur district in Bihar. Four of the seven accused have been arrested. The accused wanted her to stop attending school.

The matter came to light on Sunday evening when Asha’s brother Baban Rai lodged an FIR at Motipur police station against the accused for killing her on Friday night, and holding him and his wife hostage for several hours in their own house.

A co-villager, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the community members were against any girl pursuing studies beyond the matriculation level and the murder was a fallout of her defiance. “The girl and the accused are from the same caste. And the accused opposed the girl for continuing education at intermediate level,” he said.

Rai, who was not in the village at the time of the incident, said, “One Rajan Kumar called me up and told me that Asha had committed suicide. As soon as I reached my house, I saw her body lying in the room. Seven villagers forced me to perform her last rites at gunpoint.”

DSP (west) KM Prasad said, “A named FIR against seven people has been registered in this connection. Four of the seven accused have been arrested and are being interrogated.”

“Rai has alleged that the accused had been threatening his family of dire consequences if they continued sending Asha to school. Her coaching teacher was also told to strike off her name,” Prasad added.

Asha’s brother has alleged that the accused had been threatening his family of dire consequences if they continued sending her to school. Her teacher was also told to strike off her name

DSP K M PRASAD

Prices of essential med to go up by over 4%

Rupali.Mukherjee@timesgroup.com

Mumbai:02.04.2019

Prices of essential medicines, including painkillers, anti-infectives, supplements and antibiotics, will go up by over 4%, after the government gave its nod to the increase, in line with the annual Wholesale Price Index (WPI). Hike in prices of cardiac stents have also been allowed on the basis of WPI at 4.26% for calendar year 2018. The revision in prices of both stents and medicines will come into effect from April 1.

While prices of 871-odd medicines that are part of the National List of Essential Medicines are expected to go up by over 4%, ceiling prices of drug-eluting stents (DES) have been revised upwards of ₹30,080, and bare metal stent at ₹8,261(exclusive of GST). Prices of essential medicines are revised according to change in annual WPI, according to the Drug Price Control Order (2013).

Earlier, the price for DES (metallic and biodegradable) was ₹28,849, and bare metal stood at ₹7,923.

The DPCO 2013 lays down the provision for price revision in drugs, where manufacturers can revise the MRP of scheduled formulations once a year, in April, on the basis of the WPI of preceding calendar year, and, for this, no prior approval of government is required. Also, in case of a decline in wholesale price index, there shall be a corresponding reduction in the maximum retail price, it adds.

Those manufacturers who sell branded/generic, or both versions of scheduled formulations at a price higher than ceiling price (plus goods and services taxes as applicable), shall revise the prices downward, not exceeding the ceiling price specified (plus goods and services taxes as applicable), the notification says.

₹`11.5cr seized from warehouse of Katpadi DMK functionary
Cash Was Meant For Voters, Say Officials

Sivakumar.B @timesgroup.com

Chennai:02.04.2019

Officials of the I-T investigation wing, during a predawn operation on Monday, recovered ₹11.50 crore cash stashed in gunny bags and cardboard boxes at a cement warehouse in Vellore district.

The godown, owned by Poonjolai Srinivasan, a DMK functionary, is located close to his house in Katpadi. Most of the cash was ₹200 notes. Some were neatly packed in envelopes with details of municipal and village wards written on them. I-T officials said they were meant to be distributed among voters in those wards.

DMK treasurer S Duraimurugan’s son Kadhir Anand is the party candidate in Vellore Lok Sabha constituency. I-T officials have been searching the premises of Duraimurugan and Kadhir Anand since Friday night. During the search at their house in Katpadi, officials seized ₹10.5 lakh in unaccounted money and bundles of papers with ward details and amounts written on them. Asked about the papers, the father-son duo had told I-T officials that they were junk papers. The officials continued their searches at a college and school owned by the family in Vellore district and a farmhouse owned by Anand’s confidante, Chakravarthy.

On Monday, based on a tip, income tax officials swooped down on Srinivasan’s godown with revenue and police officers. “We have established a link between the papers seized from Duraimurugan’s house and the envelopes seized from the godown. Both had same details,” said a senior I-T official. “We will send a report to the election commission on the seizure,” he said.

CASH STASH: Most of the cash seized in Katapdi on Monday was in ₹200 notes, say officials | P7

ECI team to take stock of poll prep today

So far in Tamil Nadu, ₹78.12 crore in cash has been seized. Of that, ₹20 crore has been returned to the owners on production of documents to establish source of money, said EC officials. An election commission team led by chief election commissioner Sunil Arora is visiting Chennai on Tuesday to take stock of election preparedness and interact with political party leaders.

Duraimurugan said the BJP was threatening opposition parties by misusing central agencies. He said neither he nor his partymen would feel threatened. “Our leader has not reacted to the money seized on Monday as the money was found in a place which is not owned by him. He will react if the I-T s ays the money belongs to him,” said a senior DMK legal wing member.

SC clears path for pension hike of employees in all cos

But PF Corpus To Be Reduced As A Result

Prabhakar.Sinha@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:02.04.2019

The Supreme Court on Monday paved the way for higher pension to all private sector employees by dismissing a special leave petition filed by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) against a Kerala high court judgment.

The HC had asked EPFO to give pension to all retiring employees on the basis of their full salary, rather than capping the figure on which contribution is calculated at a maximum of ₹15,000 per month.

“We find no merit in the special leave petition. Accordingly, it is dismissed,” the SC ruled.

The only catch is that while pension will increase, the provident fund corpus will be reduced as the extra contribution will now go to the Employees Pension Scheme (EPS) rather than PF. However, the amount reduced is unlikely to be significant as the commutation of the part of increased pension will be sufficient to fill the gap.

The Centre had introduced the EPS in 1995, under which an employer was supposed to contribute 8.33% of the employee’s salary in a pension scheme. However, the contribution was capped at 8.33% of ₹6,500 (or ₹541per month). In March 1996, the government amended the act and allowed the contribution to be a percentage of the actual salary, provided the employee and employer had no objection.

On September 1, 2014, the EPFO amended the act to increase the contribution to 8.33% of a maximum of ₹15,000 (or ₹1,250). The amendment also stipulated that in case of those who availed the benefit of pension on full salary, their pensionable salary would be calculated as the average of the last five years’ monthly salary, and not of the last one year of average salary, as per earlier norms. This reduced the pension of many employees.

SC pension decision likely to settle issue once for all

Subsequently, the Kerala high court set aside the September 1, 2014 amendment and also reinstated the old system of calculating the pensionable salary as the average of the last one year’s monthly salary.

In October 2016, the Supreme Court directed the EPFO to accept the requests of employees to contribute to the pension scheme on the basis of full salary, with back date, and give pension on full salary.

A number of retired employees benefited from the scheme, including Parveen Kohli, a private sector employee got his pension revised from ₹2,372 per month to ₹30,592 per month. Kohli now works to get pension enhanced for other retired employees. However, even after the SC judgment, EPFO refused to accept contributions of employees of exempt companies, whose EPFs are managed by trusts, even when they were ready to contribute the due amount. Provident funds of most of the large PSUs like navratnas including ONGC, Indian Oil and others and large private sector companies are managed by trusts as per norms suggested by EPFO.

A number of high courts like Kerala, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Madras, among others, ruled in favour of employees and asked EPFO to allow them to contribute.

Monday’s decision of the Supreme Court is expected to settle the issue once for all. Employees who have begun working after September 1, 2014, will also be able to avail the benefit of pension on full salary.

DVAC books former HR&CE joint commissioner for graft

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:02.04.2019

Former joint commissioner of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department (HR&CE) was booked in a corruption case by the special investigative cell of the DVAC. M Pugalendran is accused of appointing temporary staff as permanent employees and sanctioning and dispersing salaries in violation of government order during 2012-13. His action caused a loss of ₹19.21 lakh to the exchequer, the DVAC said.

The DVAC filed the FIR last Tuesday based on a preliminary inquiry and a case was registered against the officer. The DVAC said Pugalendran had served as the joint commissioner of HR&CE, Coimbatore region, from November 2011 to January 2013. He oversaw five temples with five executive officers working under him.

According to the DVAC, the five officers were instigated by Pugalendran to send recommendations for pay fixation for temporary staff working under them. Officials said Pugalendran issued orders for pay fixation of 46 temporary employees without obtaining a sanction order from seniors. He did not verify related files and documents before issuing the orders, officials said, adding that these employees were recruited as daily wagers and the move was a violation of the HR&CE Act. The DVAC said Pugalendran also passed orders for claiming pay arrears and other benefits for the 46 employees. Officials said this was done in lieu of monetary benefits by the accused Pugalendran.

The DVAC registered a case against the officer under Section 13(2) and 13(1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Pugalendran had already been removed from service, officials added.

M Pugalendran’s action caused a loss of ₹19.21 lakh to the exchequer, the DVAC said

General medicine popular choice for PG on day one of counselling

Pushpa.Narayan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:  02.04.2019

On the first day of counselling for admission to postgraduate medical courses under the state quota, MD general medicine was the most popular choice with more than 94 of the 290 candidates allotted seats opting for it.

The surgical stream, on the other hand, had just 24 takers and one student opted for anaesthesiology.

“The career options for general medicine are much better today,” said Dr Senthil Kumar, who was waiting for his turn at the counselling centre outside the Government Multi-Speciality Hospital at Omandurar. “As a PG in general medicine, he can practice in a clinic specialising in diabetes, lifestyle diseases or as family physician. Or, there is an option of specialising in fields like cardiology or nephrology. Pay is good and work is less compared to surgery,” he said.

A total of 112 candidates — nearly 38% — made it to the allotted list on Monday, according to the state selection committee. Based on the state merit list, the state called 492 students for counselling. “The merit list was drawn up based on NEET scores along with incentive scores given to in-service candidates. According to the government order students were given a maximum of 30% marks over the NEET score depending on the geographical area and number of years they have served,” said selection committee secretary Dr G Selvarajan. After the incentives, all top 10 candidates from the allotted list were from government hospitals.

At the end of the day, the committee said only 367 candidates had attended counselling. Of these, 283 were allotted seats in government medical colleges, seven in self-financing colleges affiliated to Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University and 72 were waitlisted. Five other students decided not to take seats at the state counselling.

Some students who were happy with the seats allotted at the round 1 of all India counselling conducted by the Directorate General of Health Services did not turn up for counselling. “Some others came here to see if they had the option to get the college or course of their choice. It worked out for some. We are assuming that 125 of them did not turn up because they might have got the seat of their choice through the all India quota,” he said. The counselling will continue till Thursday and is likely to resume for the second phase after the second round of counselling for the all India quota is completed.

HC allows PG NEET counselling to go on

The Madurai bench of the Madras high court has directed the directorate of medical education not to publish the final list for NEET PG admissions in TN medical colleges, but has allowed the counselling, which began on Monday, to continue. The direction was in response to a petition by a Madurai-based government doctor who sought an interim stay on the counselling on the grounds that a government order passed on March 6 arbitrarily favours health officers working in municipalities and corporations. The PG NEET examinations were held on January 6, two months before the recent GO was passed. Dr P Jeyakumar, an assistant surgeon at the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai since 2013, said for all these years, 10% of NEET marks secured by medical officers were awarded as incentive and he was of the impression that he would be eligible for the incentive. But by passing the GO, the department had categorized the working place for availing incentives under difficult areas in hills, difficult areas in plains, remote and rural areas. TNN

Govt uses ‘ghost report’ to set right wrong answer in job test, high court orders probe

Sureshkumar.K@timesgroup.com

Chennai:02.04.2019

The Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB) was left red-faced after its attempt to mislead the Madras high court with a bogus ‘expert report’ was exposed by a job applicant on Monday.

After the policeman proved that such an ‘expert’ never existed in IIT-Madras, the board admitted to ‘impersonation’ and said it had lodged a complaint against two people responsible for it. The court, however, called for a detailed response from the department.

The issue pertains to a recruitment drive conducted by the board for the post of subinspector (fingerprint) in 2018. S Arunachalam, a grade-II police constable, applied for the post and participated in the recruitment process. However, Arunachalam was denied appointment as he failed to secure the required marks in the written examination. Aggrieved, he approached the high court alleging that on account of a wrong key answer, half a mark was denied to him with which he would have become eligible for the appointment.

Opposing the plea, TNUSRB produced an ‘expert opinion’ from Dr D Murthi, professor, department of maths, IIT-M, dated March 1 which said the the petitioner had indeed entered wrong answer to the question and that the answer key was right. Based on the opinion, the high court dismissed his plea.

Impersonation case: Court to hear more details today

On Monday when Justice S M Subramaniam commenced his proceedings, Arunachalam’s counsel made an urgent mention stating that the ‘expert opinion’ produced by the board was ‘bogus’ as no such person named Moorthy exists in the list of faculty of IIT-M. “This apart, the RTI reply sent by the institute dated March 18, which is placed before the court says that there is no regular/guest/visiting faculty under the name professor D Moorthy in the department of mathematics,” he said.

Appalled over the submission, Justice Subramaniam sought a response from the additional advocate-general who represented the TNUSRB.

When the plea was taken up for hearing, additional advocate general admitted that there was an impersonation and submitted written instructions signed by the inspector-general of police and member-secretary of the board, in which it was stated that they had identified some impersonation in the matter and that a criminal complaint has been lodged with the Chennai city commissioner of police.

Based on the complaint, FIR has been registered against G V Kumar and D Moorthy, who had committed forgery with an intention to cheat the board, by furnishing false documents, the officers said.

However, pointing out that larger questions raised by the court as to the ‘sanctity’ of engaging Kumar for the purpose of obtaining ‘expert opinion’ and his status in the board are not explained by the authorities, the court directed them to file a detailed affidavit setting out the facts and circumstances by Tuesday.

Considering the seriousness of the allegations made, the court directed the registrar (judicial) of the court to keep the files of the petition in safe custody till next hearing.

Considering the seriousness of the allegations, the court directed the registrar of the court to keep the petition files in safe custody