Clash leads to arrest of 28 engineering students in Tiruchi

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

TIRUCHI, JULY 29, 2019 00:00 IST

Problem arose as one group had allegedly teased girls of the institution

Twenty eight students of a private engineering college here were arrested after a clash broke out between them on the institution’s premises at Pirattiyur here on Saturday afternoon. Five students were injured in the incident.

Police sources said a clash broke out between the third year and fourth year students after some of them had reportedly teased girl students despite being cautioned.

Police sources said some third year students had been allegedly teasing girls of the institution for sometime and were cautioned by the fourth year students to desist from such acts.

A wordy quarrel ensued between the third year and fourth year students leading to a scuffle between them on Saturday afternoon. The situation thereafter took a turn for the worse when a clash broke out between them on the cricket ground. The warring students clashed with beer bottles and wooden logs with the fight extending out of the institution campus as well.

Acting on information, a police team rushed to the institution to bring things under control. Five students suffered head injuries in the clash. The police picked up a group of students and conducted detailed inquiries with them thereafter.

Based on that, the E. Pudur Police have arrested in all 28 students of which 11 were fourth year students and the remaining 17 being third year students. The arrests were made based on separate complaints lodged by the two groups. Those arrested were remanded in judicial custody after being produced before a magistrate in the early hours on Sunday.

The E. Pudur police has registered a case under IPC section, including 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapon), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and 506 (ii) (criminal intimidation).

Second round of MBBS, BDS counselling from tomorrow

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI, JULY 29, 2019 00:00 IST

The second round of counselling for MBBS, BDS seats will be held from Tuesday.

According to the Directorate of Medical Education, 146 seats are available in government medical colleges. This number is the available seats following the allocation under the all-India quota during the second-round counselling held by the Director-General of Health Services. There are 69 seats in self-financing colleges on offer.

The Rajah Muthiah Medical College has 24 seats; the Indian Road Transport Medical College, Perundurai, has 17 and the ESIC Medical College in K.K. Nagar has seven seats.

The Kilpauk Medical College Hospital and Kovai Medical College and Hospital have no vacancies.

There are 16 vacancies in the Government Dental Hospital and College.

NCTE to introduce counselling in BEd

The council also launched an online portal for verification of degrees, diplomas and certificates in teacher education

c-Sheetal.Banchariya@timesgroup.com

29.07.2019

After launching the four-year integrated Bachelor of Education (BEd) course, the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) will introduce counselling as a prominent component in BEd curriculum. NCTE will soon decide on having a dedicated BEd course in Counselling, which will be introduced in around 18000 institutes.

The BEd curriculum is being revised almost after four decades and hence, counselling can also be added to the existing courses.

“Students of the present generation are prone to stress and other psychological issues. A cadre of trained professionals is required to deal with the problem at the school and college level. The ongoing BEd courses do not equip teachers with counselling skills, hence, we will soon launch a BEd in Counselling course,” said Satbir Bedi, chairperson, NCTE.

The council is also working towards developing a model BEd college in every district to train teachers. “The model college will help in guiding other colleges while setting up an ideal example. The plan is targeted at around 700 colleges and will train more than 70,000 teachers in a year,” added Bedi.

Around 19 lakh teachers pass out from BEd colleges every year which is a surplus, as the country has the requirement of only 3 lakh teachers. “Matching the demand and supply is one of the major challenges that the council needs to address immediately,” said Bedi. She added that “students pursuing BEd and teaching courses in different parts of the country will no longer be required to come all the way to NCTE office to collect and verify the documents. Essential documents will be readily available on the web portal.”

2-ft idol of Perumal found abandoned in police station

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Tiruvarur:29.07.2019

Police found a two-foot metal idol of lord Perumal stuffed in a gunny bag inside a stockroom of Mannargudi town police station. As there was no mention of it in the records at the station, they handed over the idol to revenue officials for further investigation.

According to police, the idol was found wrapped in a plastic sheet in a bag when a few police personnel were cleaning the stockroom on Saturday night. Police reported this to inspector Rajendran who rushed to the station and inspected the stone idol which seemed to be that of lord Perumal.

As they were clueless on how the idol landed up there, they checked all the station records. However, they found nothing that could relate to the idol or any cases thereof.

After informing Mannargudi deputy superintendent of police Karthik, inspector Rajendran handed over the idol to Mannargudi tahsildar Karthi at his office on Sunday. The revenue officials are trying to determine whether the idol was made of panchaloha or some other metal and how old it is.


INCIDENTAL FIND: Police handed over the idol to revenue officials in Tiruvarur on Sunday

Unfilled seats: AICTE won’t accredit new colleges for 2yrs

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:29.07.2019

Engineering admission has dropped to 50%-55% in the last four years and due to the huge vacancies in colleges, the All India Council for Technical Education will not accredit new engineering and pharma colleges for the next two years, AICTE chairman Anil D Sahasrabudhe said on Sunday.

“Colleges with less admissions cannot survive as they are not able to pay salaries and maintain the infrastructure,” he said, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology’s 28th convocation.

When asked about vacancies, Sahasrabudhe said, “In the last four years, engineering admissions have dropped to 50%- 55% and 2.5 lakh seats have been cut. So, there are huge vacancies in engineering colleges”. Such colleges are reducing intake or shutting down, he added.

The council is mulling a common entrance test for engineering, twice a year, and the better of the two scores will be considered for admission. “But many states wanted time to make their syllabi on par with CBSE first,” he said.

In the convocation, Union secretary for ministry of earth sciences M N Rajeevan, Mars Orbiter Mission project director S Arunan, Isro’s human space flight programme director S Unnikrishnan Nair and senior Isro scientist R Umamaheswaran received honorary doctorates. Degrees were given to 3,029 graduates.

Not 1 student in 16 colleges, over 54% engg seats vacant
230 Colleges Fill Less Than 30% Seats After Counselling

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:29.07.2019

Eleven government and two private colleges filled all their seats while 16 private colleges could not get a single student this year after four rounds of online counselling conducted by the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) committee. And 54% seats in 479 colleges remain vacant.

Like previous years, 230 colleges filled less than 30% of seats. Of 1,67,101 seats available for counselling, 76,364 were filled.

“More than 200 colleges could not fill 30% of seats in the past four years. If the trend continues, the colleges could lose 50% of seats,” said career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi. If colleges have less than 30% admissions for five consecutive years, AICTE cuts seats by 50%.

Computer science and civil engineering emerged as most and least preferred streams while mechanical engineering saw a huge drop in demand, with only 36% of seats filled. Colleges in Chennai and Coimbatore regions got more students. As many as 1,519 students from previous rounds participated in the fourth round due to improper choice filling.

In a curious case, 30,702 seats were filled in the fourth and final round (cut-off 114.75 to 77.5), registering the maximum enrolment in four rounds.

Experts said the changes in post-matric scholarship to SC students increased the allotments in fourth round. “Now, only students admitted through counselling can claim reimbursement. So students who joined colleges under management quota have shifted to government quota,” the principal of a city college said.

“But more than 85% of the students in the fourth round have got their first choices. Private colleges may have filled the choices on behalf of the students,” Jayaprakash Gandhi said.

“Due to poor results and

Cloudy skies, light rain this week

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:29.07.2019

After a few spells of night rain, most parts of the city are likely to have a dry spell that may last a few days, while some parts may get light rain.

Though it did not rain on Saturday and Sunday, weather remained pleasant. On Sunday, Nungambakkam recorded maximum temperature of 34.1 degrees Celsius and minimum temperature of 28 degrees Celsius. Meenambakkam recorded maximum temperature of 33.6degrees Celsius and minimum temperature of 26.8 degrees Celsius.

The Met department forecast the next two days for cloudy skies. The forecast said: “The sky condition is likely to be generally cloudy. Light rain is likely to occur in some areas.”

The dip in day temperature may bring down chances of rain at night, said a Met official. But some parts of the city may experience rain close to the next weekend.

Weather bloggers said there could be rain in the intervening night of July 31 and August 1. However, it is only a likelihood and conditions might change, said a Met official. An inference by the Met department shows “a cyclonic circulation over northwest Bay of Bengal and neighbourhood and a low pressure area likely during the next two to three days.” It is not likely to bring rain to the city, and may prevent rain by impacting moisture and wind pattern in the south.

Since Monday is likely to be cloudy, the maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 35 degrees Celsius and 28 degrees Celsius respectively. The city received short spells of convective rain in June and July and is expected to get a few more spells in August. The city has received 247.5mm rain since June 1.