Bogus degree business thrives in edu hub

Bogus degree business thrives in edu hub

Tushar.Tere@timesgroup.com

Vadodara:29.11.2020

Once known to be an education hub of the state, the city seems to have become a centre for the gangs selling fake educational degrees. The recent seizure of over 500 fake degrees and mark sheets and arrest of three persons has brought to fore the bustling business in the city. The police said that many such gangs have been operating here over the last few years.

“The city is home to many educated middle-class citizens who aspire that their kids, too, study well and get good degrees for either getting admissions in reputed colleges or move abroad. Many of the parents are hence ready to shell out good money to buy degree certificates for their kids,” said a police official involved in the investigations.

“When the kids fail to acquire good marks or even pass in examinations, they or their parents look for other ways to ensure that their career takes off. Buying fake degree certificates is one of the easiest ways,” the police official added.

In last eight months, the cops have busted different gangs printing and selling fake certificates and mark-sheets and filed four cases. One of the accused, Mukesh Parmar, who was booked in May this year, is known to be an expert in making and selling forged degrees. In fact, in 2018, the police had arrested a peon working with M S University for stealing mark sheets and selling them to such gangs.

“Many of these gang members are usually involved in helping people get admission for their kids in colleges. They gradually develop good contacts and then start selling fake degree certificates and mark sheets for making quick money,” said R C Kanamiya, police inspector, prevention of crime branch (PCB).

He added that the accused are also associated with passport agents and often help youngsters get admission in colleges abroad. “Once they start earning good money, these gangs hire youngsters, expert in different software. Then they start designing and printing degrees and marksheets of various colleges. These gangs have networks in many states where they sell such bogus marksheets,” Kanamiya added. The cops usually bust such gangs on the basis of tip-offs or complaints by some unsatisfied customer.

Kingpin held from Udaipur

Vadodara: The kingpin of the fake mark sheet scam, Sukhpal Singh alias Vicky Sardar, was nabbed by the prevention of crime branch (PCB) from Udaipur on Saturday. Police said that Sardar was the mastermind of the entire scam. He used to issue degrees of William Carey University of Shillong. Sardar’s name was revealed when a man from Bharuch and two others from Fatehgunj were nabbed on November 26. Degree and migration certificates of William Carey University were found on the three accused. When the PCB sleuths raided Sardar’s house in Gotri and his office on Jetalpur road, cops found some documents, but Sardar was not there. Using technical sources, Sardar’s location was traced to Udaipur where a team went and nabbed him from a hotel. TNN

Couple murdered in Dubai; victims’ kids, parents get golden visas for 10 yrs Sisters Awarded Study Scholarship

Couple murdered in Dubai; victims’ kids, parents get golden visas for 10 yrs  Sisters Awarded Study Scholarship

Parth.Shastri@timesgroup.com

Ahmedabad:29.11.2020

In a rare instance, two sisters – aged 18 and 13 – with their grandparents have got the golden visa of UAE with a validity of 10 years. Their parents, Vadodara-natives Hiren and Vidhi Adhia, were killed by a burglar at their villa in Dubai on June 18. The visa was granted on humanitarian grounds and a possible first for Indians, said Indian community members.

Hiren Adhia and his wife Vidhi, both in their 40s, were asleep at their villa in Arabian Ranches when a burglar entered and stole valuables worth 2,000 dirham. Hiren spotted and confronted the burglar and was stabbed. When Vidhi came to rescue him she was also stabbed and both died on the spot. On November 23 their daughters and parents were granted ‘golden visa’. The sisters also got the full scholarship for their studies in Dubai.

Scholarships also announced

In a statement issued by the Dubai Police, visas were handed over by Lieutenant General Abdullah Khalifa Al Mari, commander-in-chief of Dubai Police, and Major General Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri, DG, General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) office in Dubai.

The press statement issued by the Dubai Police said it collaborated with GDRFA to issue the golden visas following efforts by CID’s Victim Support Programme. Dubai police has withheld the name of the sisters to protect their identity as they are part of the victim support programme.

‘Granting the golden visas to the sisters is in line with the humanitarian approach embraced by the UAE’s wise leadership to ensure the happiness of all community segments in the UAE,’ said Lt Gen Al Marri in the statement. Dubai Police also announced full scholarships for the sisters at Canadian University and Repton School in Dubai.

Final MBBS exams deferred

Final MBBS exams deferred

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:29.11.2020

The final examinations for MBBS students scheduled for January 2021 have been postponed to February and March.

Examinations for first-year students will be held from February 8, for second-year students from March 2 and for third-year students from March 23.

Medical students had protested and organised Twitter campaigns demanding their annual examinations to be held in January 2020 be postponed. They had complained of insufficient time for preparation, ineffective online classes, and a lack of practical exposure. More than 25,000 medicos had participated in the Twitter campaign and a delegation of AIDSO Karnataka met the vice-chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) submitted a memorandum demanding postponement of exams.

Dr S Sacchidanand, vice-chancellor, RGUHS, said the postponement is based on guidelines provided by the National Medical Commission. He said that not every student was against exams in January and the delay will have a cascading effect on the academic calendar. “There is already a division between batches. We have conducted exams for odd batches because we need interns to join us as soon as possible,” he said. Students in odd batches are those who have back-papers.

Tied up in a knotty law, some interfaith couples opt to convert

Tied up in a knotty law, some interfaith couples opt to convert

There is no need to convert under the Special Marriage Act, but the 30-day notice period and bureaucratic hassles make couples take the religious route

Sonam.Joshi@timesgroup.com

29.11.2020

Mohammed was from Bihar, and Pavitra from Mangalore was his boss at a telecom company. The two fell in love during a training programme in Mumbai, and despite family opposition, wanted to spend their lives together. But since Pavitra’s father wanted to get her married off, the two hit the road, going to Hyderabad, Delhi and then Dehradun. There, they tried getting married under the Special Marriage Act,1954, which allows interfaith couples to marry without converting, but were repeatedly discouraged by district officials who said their marriage wouldn’t work and asked them to apply in their hometowns instead.

Fearing separation, they opted for a nikah. “I had no objection to Pavitra following her religion but we were desperate. How long could we keep running? We were afraid of someone asking us why we were living together,” he recalls. But their ordeal was far from over. A few days later, police showed up at their doorstep and took Pavitra back to Mangalore, where she claims she was forcibly kept for a few months. Finally, she managed to talk to him and travel to Delhi to get married officially. But even then, it took several months for them to get legally married under the Special Marriage Act (SMA) in August 2019 due to the one-month residency requirement in Delhi and official delays in sending notices and verification.

Mohammed and Pavitra’s tumultuous path to wedlock shows why even couples who don’t wish to convert have to opt for religious weddings rather than face the long procedural and bureaucratic hassles of SMA.

One of the main problems with SMA is the notice that is displayed at the marriage registration office for a month. Amrita Garg, an advocate at the High Court of Punjab and Haryana who aids such couples, says that this provision has the unintended effect of alerting vigilante groups and disapproving family members. “Sometimes, such notices have been sent to the families of the couple, often leading to violence and honour killings, defeating the purpose of enacting this legislation,” she says. Then there is the human angle. “To my mind, the greatest problem is the wide power given to marriage officers, the first stop for all couples wishing to marry. They appropriate the role of marriage counsellors and abuse their position to create obstacles.”

Recently, couples in Kerala found their pictures and personal details leaked and circulated on social media with allegations of ‘love jihad’. Athira Sujatha, who was among those whose details were shared on Facebook and WhatsApp before her marriage in December 2019, wrote a Facebook post tagging state legislators which then led to the applications being removed from the government website in July. “They simply didn’t mention that these applications were under SMA,” says Athira, who hasn’t changed her religion.

Renu Mishra of Lucknow-based Association of Advocacy and Legal Initiatives says that couples are often daunted by the Special Marriage Act. “When we tell couples that the notices might be sent to their homes, they get scared and rarely return,” she says.

Garg says that they often come across couples who convert to their partner’s religion to marry under the personal laws of that religion just to avoid the long and cumbersome procedure under SMA. “However, such conversions have become difficult with legislations to prevent them in states such as Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand,” she says. “This, effectively, places such couples in a Catch-22 situation.”

Delhi-based NGO Dhanak, which offers legal, financial and psychological support to inter-caste and interreligion couples, often receives requests from such couples who want to travel to the national capital from other states to tie the knot under the SMA. “They want to change their jurisdiction as they lack faith in the local administration of their place,” says co-founder Asif Iqbal. “Moreover, locals in smaller cities tend to inform the families.” But even this requires a mandatory one-month stay in Delhi, which is often difficult and costly for young couples on the run.

Time is often a luxury that interfaith couples don’t have. Fleeing from their families, Anu* and Ashfaq* had a quick Arya Samaj marriage, and then applied for licence under SMA after getting court protection. However, their plans were derailed by the Covid-19 lockdown. After waiting in Delhi for two months, they ran out of money and returned to their home state but hope to save enough to return soon and formalise their union. “In such cases, religious marriage presents an instant solution,” says Dhanak’s Iqbal, adding that they have been getting requests from couples who had a religious marriage a year or two ago but now want to get it registered under SMA because of insecurity over the proposed new laws.

*Names changed on request

Mohammed Married in 2019

I had no objection to Pavitra following her religion but we were desperate. How long could we keep running?

Sometimes notices displayed at the marriage registration office have the unintended effect of alerting vigilante groups and disapproving family members

— AMRITA GARG Advocate

ED attaches ex-IAS officer’s property worth ₹27.8 crore

ED attaches ex-IAS officer’s property worth ₹27.8 crore

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi/Raipur:29.11.2020

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached properties worth ₹27.86 crore of former IAS officer Babu Lal Agarwal under Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 (PMLA) in cases related to criminal misconduct and cheating by a public servant.

The attached assets include plant and machinery, bank accounts and immovable properties of the former bureaucrat and his family members, say officers.

Agrawal, a 1988-batch IAS officer, was arrested by the agency from his home in Raipur on November 9 and is in judicial custody till December 5. After his arrest, he had alleged before mediapersons that ED’s proceedings were spurred by vested interests.

Officials said that ED initiated investigations under PMLA on the basis of an FIR registered by anti-corruption bureau under Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (PCA), about disproportionate assets allegedly amassed by Agrawal and his family members. The income-tax department conducted searches on him, his family members and his CA Sunil Agrawal in February 2010.

Three more FIRs were registered under IPC and PCA followed by chargesheets by CBI against Agrawal and others.

Full report on www.toi.in

NGOs must meet 3 terms for FCRA nod

NGOs must meet 3 terms for FCRA nod

Bharti.Jain@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:29.11.2020

The home ministry, in a bid to ease the transition of NGOs and associations to the new FCRA regime following recent amendments to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) and rules, has put out an advisory for compliance depending on whether an NGO has already applied for FCRA registration, prior permission or renewal or is yet to submit the application.

As per the advisory issued on Friday, the three basic compliances that the NGOs and associations must meet following the latest changes in FCRA, 2010 and Foreign Contribution Regulation Rules (FCRR), 2011 relate to obtaining a DARPAN ID from NITI Aayog portal; opening the main FCRA account in SBI Parliament Street branch, New Delhi; and seeding Aadhaar details of all office-bearers or key functionaries.

Only last week, the home ministry had extended the deadline for NGOs/associations to upload annual returns for 2019-20 up to June 30, 2021, acknowledging that meeting the new conditions under amended provisions of FCRA and FCRR by FCRAregistered and prior permission holders as well as prospective seekers of registration or PP, “may require some additional time”.

In a table put on the FCRA website on Friday, the ministry spelt out the requirements needed to be fulfilled under the amended Act and rules for four different categories of NGOs and associations; ones that have already submitted renewal application; those which have already submitted application for FCRA registration or prior permission; those which are yet to submit application for renewal of FCRA registration; and ones that are yet to submit application for FCRA registration or prior permission.

The ministry said NGOs that have already applied for registration/prior permission/renewal are being given access to their applications to seed the DARPAN ID from NITI Aayog portal. The DARPAN ID should be entered in Form 3C/3A/3B at specified place in FCRA portal.

Full report on www.toi.in

Uber, Ola drivers can work only 12 hours a day: Govt

Uber, Ola drivers can work only 12 hours a day: Govt

Dipak.Dash@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:29.11.2020

No driver attached to the passenger vehicle aggregators such as Uber and Ola would be allowed to drive their vehicles for more than 12 hours a day even if they are attached to more than one aggregator, according to the guidelines issued by the road transport ministry. The aggregators would have to develop the mechanism on their apps for this purpose and would ensure every driver gets at least 10 hours rest.

Putting safety as the highest priority, the guidelines also mandate five-day training to drivers before attaching the vehicles to their platforms and would also need to provide two-day annual refresher training to their driver-partners. Moreover, drivers who have less than 2% score from riders will need to undergo a mandatory “remedial training programme”.

The aggregators would have to ensure compliance on the part of drivers, which include valid proof of identity, driving licence, minimum driving experience of two years and police verification. The drivers attached should not have been convicted within the past three years for driving under the influence of alcohol or any cognisable offence including fraud, sexual offences, use of a motor vehicle to commit a cognisable offence, a crime involving property damage or theft or acts of violence.

The guidelines for regulation of such aggregators issued to the states specify that the vehicles attached to the aggregators must ensure installation of vehicle tracking and monitoring systems with panic buttons and this has to be connected to their control room for live monitoring. It has also prescribed that the cabs must disable child lock mechanisms and must have provision for manual override for the central locking system.

The template also says the aggregators would be required to resolve criminal grievances in 24 to 72 hours. For protecting the interest of driver partners, the aggregators would need to ensure at least ₹5 lakh health insurance and a minimum ₹10 lakh term insurance with base year 2020-21 and increased by 5% each year. According to the guidelines, the aggregators would have to allow attaching city taxis provided they comply with the laid down norms.

Cab aggregators like Uber and Ola will have to ensure every driver gets at least 10 hours rest