TNPSC exam scam: One more arrested

Bosco.Dominique@timesgroup.com

Cuddalore:29.01.2020

The CBCID sleuths on Tuesday arrested one more person from Cuddalore district in connection with the Tamil Nadu public service commission (TNPSC) Group IV examination exam fraud. The arrested was identified as Sivaraj, 34, of Panruti in Cuddalore district, who appeared from a centre at Ramanathapuram district in the state.

Sivaraj is related to two men — Rajasekar and Srinivasan — from Cuddalore district, who were arrested in the examination fraud. Rajasekar was arrested on January 25 in Cuddalore district while Srinivasan was apprehended at Arni in Tiruvannamalai district on Monday.

Inquiries by the investigation agency revealed that Sivaraj, Rajasekar and Srinivasan had approached the same middleman to crack the competitive exam. They had appeared for the exam from the same centre in Ramanathapuram district, as instructed by the middleman. They had secured identical marks (288) and claimed the joint-eighth rank in the state.

Sivaraj, a differentlyabled person, said he had paid ₹8 lakh to get a government job to boost his chances of finding a suitable bride .

The investigating agency identified four people from Cuddalore district who had appeared for the exam from the two centres in Ramanathapuram district following allegations that most of the people who appeared from the centres in the district secured the top 100 ranks. The agency has arrested three people so far and has launched a hunt for the fourth man.

The TNPSC had banned 99 candidates for life for indulging in malpractices in the examination. The modus operandi of the gang is to instruct the candidates to mark the answers using a pen with a special ink that disappears after a few hours. The middlemen and corrupt government servants will mark the right answers in the candidates' answer sheets later.

More than 13 lakh candidates appeared for the TNPSC Group IV examination on September 1 last year. The commission published the results of the exam on November 12.

For 3 days, vehicles zip through Paranur without paying toll

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:29.01.2020

For the third day in a row, vehicles crossed Paranur toll plaza on Chennai’s outskirts without paying user fee as the facility damaged by angry commuters is yet to be repaired.

Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest this entails a revenue loss of at least ₹70 lakh. It might take another three days to repair the damage caused when passengers of a state-owned bus ransacked the toll plaza after one of its employees attacked the bus crew during an argument over paying toll.

Motorists are, however, happy that they can zip through without much of a wait. “It is frustrating to wait for 20-30 minutes everyday. Vehicles queue up for more than a kilometre during weekends and festive seasons,” said A Mani, a private bus driver. “We thought it will become better after FASTag was made mandatory. But entering FASTag lanes has become difficult now.”

More than half the vehicles haven’t subscribed to FASTag (digital toll collection system) and pay fee by cash. But only two of six lanes accept cash. So vehicles attempting to enter these two lanes drive across and block those with FASTag, Mani added.

The toll plaza, set up in 2005, has so far collected ₹609 crore, according to official data. Despite collecting more than what was invested (₹540 crore), the rates haven’t been cut, complain motorists.

S Yuvraj of Tamil Nadu Sand Lorry Owners Federation claimed the concessionaire agreement signed with the contractor had expired but toll collection continued.

DARING THEFT: CCTV camera grab of money being looted from the toll plaza

₹18 lakh stolen on January 26

Chennai: A complaint has been filed with police claiming that ₹18 lakh was stolen from the toll plaza at Paranur during the violence on January 26. Police are checking CCTV camera footage to establish the truth. TNN

State govt transfers IAS officer, triggers speculation
Move Comes After Request For Voluntary Retirement

Julie Mariappan & D Govardan TNN

Chennai:29,01,2020

The government on Monday posted information technology secretary Santhosh Babu as chairman and managing director of Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation, a post he had been holding additionally since September. Rural Development and Panchayat Raj secretary Hans Raj Varma will now hold additional charge of Information Technology.

Santhosh Babu’s transfer comes in the wake of reports that he had sought voluntary retirement and later withdrew it. The transfer assumes significance given the controversial high-cost tender floated by his department in December to provide broadband connectivity to all 12,524 villages. The state government secured the Centre’s nod for the ₹1,815.31 crore project. Amid reports of ‘pressure’ to favour some bidders, the officer sent a letter to chief secretary K Shanmugam via email last week seeking voluntary retirement and sent another mail two days later, seeking its withdrawal, said a senior official, on condition of anonymity. Santhosh Babu went on leave last week.

Close associates said the senior officer gave shape to Tamil Nadu FibreNet Corporation (Tanfinet), a special purpose vehicle floated for implementing the Centre’s BharatNet project to link all 2.5 lakh village panchayats in the country with broadband. Tanfinet was picked to implement the project covering all villages in Tamil Nadu. “He not only worked from the beginning to help implement the project in Tamil Nadu, he also visited New Delhi to attend meetings to get it going,” sources said. The state will soon launch TamilNet to connect all urban local bodies, but without Santhosh Babu to oversee the roll out. “It is unfortunate a go-getter like Santhosh was shifted out and additional charge given to rural development secretary, whose hands are already full,” said an official, not willing to be named.

The government made Tanfinet MD M S Shanmugam commissioner of museums. D Ravichandran, home, prohibition and excise department deputy secretary, is the new MD of Tanfinet. Hans Raj Varma holds additional charge of special programme implementation department that takes care of welfare schemes. He held additional charge of Sidco (Small Industries Development Corporation) and registration department in 2017 and 2019.

Why corpn babus will visit Singapore’s mosquito lab

Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com

Chennai:29.01.2020

Greater Chennai Corporation officials will be visiting Singapore to study a ‘mosquito laboratory’ in a bid to contain the spread of dengue.

Singapore has successfully bred male mosquitoes in controlled laboratory conditions and injected them with the Wolbachia strain of bacteria. The mosquitoes are released in the surroundings. When infected mosquitoes mate with the females, the embryos formed die. In effect, the male mosquitoes are rendered sterile by the bacteria.

Over a period of time, this can gradually bring down the number of the mosquitoes carrying the dengue virus, thereby reducing the spread of dengue, said a senior official. There are published studies documenting this, he said.

In Tuesday’s review meeting, corporation commissioner G Prakash briefed local bodies minister S P Velumani on the steps taken by Singapore. Prakash informed the minister about the civic body’s plan to conduct a study tour.

While Velumani is understood to have given the green signal, he said the conditions and landscape in Singapore was different. Spread of dengue is dependent on conditions like how water is stored and the extent of urban planning whichimpacts mosquitobehaviour, a source said.

The officials are likely to conduct a study of how the mosquito colonies are reared, how the eggs are produced and the male mosquitoes are maintained.

B Dhanraj, retired chief vector control officer of the corporation, told TOI that in principle the idea worked but there would be practical difficulties in executing it.

“Singapore is an island, where the sterile male mosquitoes will mate with wild females. However, Chennai is an open place and there are many wild males which may come along with migrants coming on bus or train from nearby towns or districts,” Dhanraj said. However, there was no harm in conducting a trial and gauge its success. “Since we are going against nature, rate of success will depend on many factors,” he said.

Dhanraj recalled how in 70s, chemo-sterile mosquitoes were released in Delhi but faced a public backlash when the mosquitoes were released. “It was because the residents had not been informed and educated about the process and benefits it would give,” he said.

Attendance forgery by lawyers: Advocate assns told to share details
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:29.01.2020

About a week after unearthing the forged attendance scam involving at least 1,000 lawyers, the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry has instructed all advocate associations in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, seeking details of lawyers who had obtained law degrees when they were employed in government or private organisations.

Council’s chairman P S Amalraj issued a circular to this effect on Tuesday, in view of arrest of principal of an Andhra Pradesh-based private law college for having helped about 1,000 culprits get fake attendance certificates. They have all been enrolled as advocates in Tamil Nadu on the basis of such forged certificates. Earlier, on January 25, the council warned that such advocates of severe action, including criminal prosecution.

The issue came to light when Vipin – a retired employee of the Southern Railways — approached the council for enrolment. He claimed that he had successfully completed law degree from Smt Basava Rama Tarakam Memorial Law College, Cuddapah, Andhra Pradesh in 2015-18. As per the guidelines set by the Madras high court, candidates who have secured law degrees from states other than Tamil Nadu are mandated to produce attendance certificates from the college. Vipin had produced an attendance certificate, which on verification by the council, was found to be forged and obtained in connivance with the college’s principal Himavantha Kumar. Kumar was arrested subsequently. A preliminary investigation revealed that more than 1,000 advocates enrolled with the council had obtained such forged certificates from the college.

Briefing reporters, Amalraj said: “Such people must surrender their enrolment certificates immediately. If not, criminal action will be initiated against them besides ensuring that pension and other benefits they enjoy are stopped.” Amalraj said a dedicated committee has been appointed to verify the veracity of certificates produced by candidates with other state law degrees.

2 med colleges in Kallakurichi & Ariyalur districts

TOI 29.01.2020

The Centre has given its nod for two new medical colleges in Kallakurichi and Ariyalur districts with 150 MBBS seats each. Of the ₹325 crore cost of the project, the Centre will pay ₹195 crore . TN has already received nod to start nine new medical colleges. Admission to all new colleges may start next year.

Students force WB guv to leave convocation venue

Kolkata:29,01,2020

West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was on Tuesday prevented by a section of students from attending the Calcutta University’s annual convocation at Nazrul Mancha, following which he left the premises.

Dhankhar, who is also the chancellor of the university, said “those that compromised culture and decorum need to be in a reflective mode”. Shortly after the governor arrived at the venue around 12.30pm, the students, with ‘No CAA’ and ‘No NRC’ posters in hand, waved black flags at him and raised ‘go back’ slogans. Dhankhar headed straight towards the Nazrul Mancha green room, where he met Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee, who was on Tuesday conferred honorary D Litt (honoris causa) by the university.

Minutes before the programme started, however, another group of students took to the stage and raised slogans against the governor, prompting him to leave the venue around 1.30pm.

The protesters claimed that Dhankhar was “the (BJP- led) Centre’s representative, who doesn’t deserve to be on the dais for CU’s convocation ceremony”.

PTI


GO BACK: WB governor Jagdeep Dhankar leaves Nazrul Mancha following an agitation by a group of youths in Kolkata on Tuesday