Supreme Court clears decks for online counselling for PG medical seats

 The Supreme Court on Friday permitted the Union Health Ministry to go ahead with online counselling from May 1 for filling postgraduate medical seats under the 50 per cent all-India quota in government colleges.

A Bench of Justices Deepak Verma and K.S. Radhakrishnan gave the nod for the Ministry's proposal after senior counsel Ashok Bhan explained the schedule. The entrance examination results were expected in a couple of days and personal counselling, which should commence on March 27 under the present system, could be dispensed with if online counselling was approved. If permitted, it could begin on May 1, counsel said.

A proposal for online counselling for undergraduate courses for 2012-13 would also be submitted to the court shortly.

Under the online system of seats allotment, candidates need not come to the counselling centre. He/she can exercise his/her choice by using Internet from anywhere. Even for the second and third counselling, he/she can follow the same procedure. The National Informatics Centre is making the online counselling process.

Categorisation

Under the online system, the college, subject and seats will be identified for the open category, the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, the Other Backward Classes and the physically handicapped. Identification will be done by arranging seats alphabetically, State-wise, college-wise, degree subjects and then PG diploma subjects.

In its application, the Health Ministry said that since the number of seats available under the all-India quota in both PG and undergraduate courses had increased over the years, it was not possible to complete counselling by personal appearance within the prescribed time limit. Further, the online system would benefit candidates, including physically challenged persons, girl students and their parents, who were now required to undertake a long journey.

At present, there was provision for two rounds of counselling. Under online counselling, there would be three rounds, ensuring that most of the seats were filled.

Modifications

The Ministry sought the following modifications: Candidates, five times the number of seats available for allotment to all qualified aspirants, will be given chance to participate in online counselling; candidates will have the right to choose from seats available in a particular category without any restriction on the number of choices of course and college; each candidate will be given 10 days' joining time; the allotment made will be final; candidates who do not register for online allotment process during the notified dates or who do not fill up their choice, online, for allotment or those who do not join the allotted course/college within the stipulated time will forfeit their claim for a seat under the all-India quota scheme.

At the end of the counselling period, the vacant seats will be surrendered to the respective States. 

Anxiety over changing JEE grips students

With a fortnight left for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) that determines admissions to Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), a sense of anxiety is prevalent among the hundreds of IIT aspirants in the city, who may be the last batch to take the the test in its current pattern.

As per current JEE rules, a student can attempt the examination twice, once when he is in class XII and again, a year later. But with the recent proposal of the Ministry of Human Resource Development to have a common entrance examination for all IITs, National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institute of Science, this might change. The IIT council has proposed that a weightage of 40 per cent be given to class XII marks, and has recommended that students be evaluated with questions on aptitude, comprehension and critical thinking and advanced examination, besides testing them on physics, mathematics and chemistry.

With talks of several such changes doing the rounds, students, understandably, have their share of anxieties. A class XII student of Vidya Mandir, who aspires to get into IIT- Madras, is worried about what  will happen if he does not get a good rank this year and the new pattern is implemented. “My school marks will not be that great because my entire focus is on JEE. If I have to take the exam again next year, I stand to lose, with inadequate school grades,” he said. “This year, to get into IIT- Madras, I have to get into the first 100 ranks, but getting in is made even more difficult because most students from Andhra Pradesh, especially all the high-scoring ones usually opt for it . I would ideally want to wait and take the exam again, but considering the confusion over the proposed changes, I will take any IIT admission that comes my way,” he said.

Nearly five lakh students are expected to take the exam on April 8, as compared to the 4.86 lakh in 2011, of which nearly 8,583 students are in Tamil Nadu. The largest pool of applications this year has come from Kanpur, followed by Andhra Pradesh from the Madras zone that comprises the four southern states and Pondicherry.

Even as the buzz around a likely change in the JEE pattern is growing by the day, it looks like the proposed common test will not be free of hiccups. .

Some states are worried that the new pattern will exclude students from rural areas. Officials from the Higher Education Department of Tamil Nadu have asked for time to analyse the pattern of the test and decide if it will suit students of the State. Even the IITs in Kanpur and Delhi have disapproved of the way the Ministry has been pushing for the changes. Recently, the All-India IIT Faculty Federation that has teachers from all IITs as members strongly opposed the proposed changes on grounds that the reforms would prevent students with high aptitudes and knowledge from getting in.

Shobana Mohan, a physics teacher at a city school said since there was very little clarity on the rules, aspirants were in the dark as to what should they focus on if they were not able to get a good rank this year. Similarly, others who are starting their preparations now are also unsure. “Will their marks in both class XI and class XII be considered and how difficult will the technical questions get, or should they start focusing on aptitude and comprehension now?” she asked.

Over the years, the JEE pattern has become simpler so that it can be more accessible to students, say trainers, especially with negative marking being removed from sections such as reasoning and matrices as seen last year. But the unpredictability still remains, particularly on how many of the topics come from class XI and class XII.

“I would ask them to focus on this year's test alone. Expect surprises, think logically and don't try to conquer the question paper like you do in the board exam. If the paper is easy, it will become more difficult to qualify,” says K. Ravi, a trainer. “The attempt should be to get into the best 10,000s, because next year, the pattern might change, and the ones wanting to attempt the examination again, might have to prepare for a new pattern all over again,” he added. 

Work on first hydro-engineering college to start in April

Shimla: The work on country's first hydro-engineering college being established in Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh would commence next month, Chief Minister P K Dhumal said.

The foundation stone of the project would be laid in April and the project would be completed within the stipulated time frame, he said.

Speaking at the concluding function of week-long State Level Nalwari Fair at Luhnu Maidan of Bilaspur, he also laid the foundation stone of sewerage scheme for the town, estimated to cost Rs 21.56 crore.

The scheme was aimed at meeting the requirements of about 65,000 population of the town upto 2040. The Chief Minister said that the proposed hydro engineering college would be first of its kind in the country where skilled youth would be produced to man hydro project constructions.

He said that there was vast potential of hydro power available in the state and sufficient skilled manpower would be required in the projects to harness this potential.

Modern technologies will be introduced in education

Jammu: To match the growing need of result oriented education, modern scientific technologies shall be introduced in the syllabus, Jammu and Kashmir government said.

“Modern scientific technologies shall be introduced in the syllabus to make it result oriented in the modern era,” minister for higher education, labour and employment Abdul Gani Malik said at a function here.

Malik called for bringing innovations in the education system to make it in tune with the present day requirements.

The teacher community should also be acquainted with the modern techniques of teaching and learning so that they could contribute to grooming of the young generation in the right direction, he added.

Employment increases by 2.26 lakh

New Delhi: Continuing its upward trend, employment in the country during the October-December quarter last year increased by 2.26 lakh, the government said.

During this quarter, the increase was visible across all the sectors except leather and automobile.

The results were based on the thirteenth quarterly survey report carried out by the Labour Bureau of the Labour and Employment Ministry to assess the effect of economic slowdown on employment in India'.

The survey was first carried out in 2008 following the slowdown in global economy, and since then the survey said overall estimated employment in all selected sectors has experienced a net addition of 25.84 till the latest survey.

The sectors taken to conduct the survey were textiles, leather, metals, automobiles, gems and jewellery, transport, IT/BPO and handloom/powerloom.

Referring to the October-December quarterly survey, the report said at the sectoral level, the maximum increase of 1.09 lakh in employment was witnessed in IT/BPO sector during this period as compared to the same period a year before.

This was followed by increase of 0.78 lakh in textiles including apparels, 0.34 lakh in transport, 0.13 lakh in handloom/powerloom and 0.10 lakh in gems and jewellery.

The report further said the maximum increase in overall employment by 1.94 lakh was seen in the direct category of workers as compared to 0.32 lakh in the contract category of workers.

In the export-oriented units, the employment at the overall level increased by 2.67 lakh while in the non-exporting units, it decreased by 0.41 lakh.

Govt gives nod to changes in Teacher Education scheme

New Delhi: With an aim to improve teaching standards in the country, the government approved modifications of the existing scheme on restructuring and reorganisation of teacher education.

The approval was given by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs to meet the increasing challenges of the teacher education system and fulfil the mandate of the government with regard to teacher preparation and training under the Right To Education (RTE) Act.

The modifications would include strengthening of existing institutes of advanced study in education and upgradation of departments of education of universities into 'institutes of advanced study in education', a government release said.

Strengthening of existing 'district institutes of education and training' and extending their mandate for training of teachers at the secondary level would also be carried out, it said.

The modification of the existing schemes will also include establishment of block institutes of teacher education in 196 identified SC/ST/Minority concentration districts for undertaking elementary pre-service teacher education programmes.

According to the statement, the revision of fund sharing pattern between the Centre and the state to carry out the modifications will be in 75:25 ratio.

The scheme will be implemented through state governments, which will submit their annual proposals for consideration and approval of the 'teacher education approval board' constituted by the department.

Schools to parents: pay donation, get admission

 Parents might as well start saving up for their child's school admission right from the time she is born, if the huge sums of donation being charged by city schools currently are any indication.

This year, many private schools in the city are charging anything between a few thousands and a few lakhs of rupees as donation, depending on how “posh” they are. The problem persists across aided, matriculation, CBSE and ICSE schools.

According to the fee receipt issued to a young couple by a popular school in T. Nagar, the total amount charged as “fee” for pre-KG admission is Rs. 39,815. In addition to this, receipts were provided for Rs. 150 towards PTA fund, Rs. 20 towards postal charges, Rs. 200 as orientation fee, and workshop fee for parents (Rs. 200 if one parent attends and Rs. 250 for both).

In effect, the couple paid over Rs. 40,000 for the admission.

“It is a donation. Just that the school cleverly distributes it under various heads. Since we needed the seat badly, we did not ask questions,” said the mother.

She might seem better off if you heard the story of the Shankars, who were eager to put their two sons in a school known for putting less pressure on students. This school in R.A. Puram, now acquiring popularity for some of its novel methods of teaching, had no qualms declaring that a donation was expected right at the time of giving away application forms. The donation quoted was not in thousands, but in lakhs.

“I was dead against paying donation, but as a parent one has many considerations. We did a lot of research and found very few schools meeting our requirements. Such schools invariably came with a huge price tag as they know they are in demand,” said Mrinalini Shankar.

What are these requirements and what pushes parents to pay so much? The responses that parents gave ranged from the quality of education to the reputation of the school. However, no parent was willing to go on record regarding the amount charged by their ward's school as donation or about the reasons that drove them to put their child in a particular school. Shuba, who paid nearly Rs. 50,000 for an LKG seat last year (the receipt said ‘building fund') in a particular school in MRC Nagar, said: “I chose the school because it was known for its emphasis on extra-curricular activities. I thought my child will have all-round development in such an environment. I don't feel all that bad because my cousin who tried in another school this year was asked to pay Rs. 2.25 lakh.”

The school Shuba's son goes to insists that parents pay the donation in cash. “I remember having a hard time withdrawing so much cash. My husband and I had to do it using multiple accounts, over a couple of days,” she added.

Another parent said though he was initially reluctant to pay a donation of nearly a lakh, he changed his mind as the regular school fee was “reasonable”. “I thought the fee matched the facilities, but the donation is clearly unjustified.”

If institutions are collecting huge sums as donation, what do they really spend on? The lack of transparency has only meant that no parent actually knows the break up of expenses incurred by a school. “I see some buildings coming up on the school premises, but I am not sure if my donation went towards that,” said a parent.

Ask schools and they say their highest revenue expenditure is on teachers' salaries. “Since institutions have to go strictly by the Sixth Pay Commission norms, we pay about Rs.20,000 a month on an average to each teacher. But the fees take care of the teachers' salaries,” said the head of a CBSE school, who did not wish to be named. The school head also pointed out that expenses incurred on buildings or auditoriums are capital in nature and should not recur every year.

In that case, the obvious question is whether some city schools run on a profit-making model.

If one were to look at progressive teaching and learning methods adopted world over, LCD monitors or air-conditioned classrooms are hardly considered basic requirements. What really matters is whether a school has well-trained teachers, a healthy teacher-pupil ratio and an engaging curriculum that encourages children to think independently. But sadly, for most city schools, fancy facilities in the garb of infrastructure and ‘smart classrooms' have become unique selling propositions of sorts. The schools have a way of excluding parents who are unwilling or unable to pay donations. Sridhar, who is trying for an LKG seat for his daughter, said: “In one school we applied to, they interviewed my daughter a few days ago. Though she knew the answers to what they asked, she was so scared that she did not open her mouth. The school promised to get back in two days, but we have not heard from them. We have to  look at other options, I suppose.”

The Right to Education Act prohibits both — the practice of schools accepting donations as well as interviewing children during admissions. However, nothing seems to prevent schools from seeking donations during admission time every year. And parents continue to pay. 

Learning Lessons: Investing in schools is imperative

 I had an accommodating co-commuter on bus route 21H on my way to work on Thursday afternoon. Jasmine, a class VI student, was on her way to St. Antony's Higher Secondary School in Foreshore Estate.

Unlike most children who find it difficult to understand my mix of Tamil-Malayalam-Telugu-English, the happy little girl volleyed a few questions at me. Thanks to the ongoing Board examinations, Jasmine was happy that she could get up late.

Otherwise, she begins her day at 6 a.m. when she walks quite a distance to the Semmencherry bus stand to reach school before the bell at 8 a.m. Next academic year, though, Jasmine will be shifting to another school in Navalur. But she will still have to take two buses. So, why did she choose this school rather than joining one in Semmecherry? She says, “Anda pallikoodathula vasadi koraiva irukku (that school has few facilities).” Besides, her father wants her to study in English-medium – something Jasmine, too, is excited about.

The Foreshore Estate school offers both Tamil and English medium syllabi, but Jasmine says after class V many shift to the latter. “There are 46 students in Tamil medium in class VI, while there are 98 in English medium,” she says.

The school education sector was one of the major beneficiaries of the Union budget 2012-13, with the Right to Education (RTE) Act through Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) getting an outlay of Rs. 25,555 crore. Does that mean many students like Jasmine who aspire to study and speak in English will get what they want even from local body schools in their neighbourhoods? K. Shanmugavelayutham, convenor of TN-FORCES (Tamil Nadu Forum for Creche and Childcare Services), says, “We need money to train teachers and improve infrastructure in schools or the quality will suffer.” Also, he says, there is always a gap between fund allocation and utilisation.

Enrolment of children in government schools is also a concern. The management of Fathima Matriculation Higher Secondary School, a private school in Saidapet, says they receive many applications from children with parents whose annual salary is less than Rs. 2 lakh in spite of the presence of government schools in the locality. These children come in the 25 per cent specified by the RTE Act, but they refuse to go to government schools.

The budget allocation also comes in the wake of increasing concerns of the quality of India's education system as reported by two surveys. The Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER) 2011 report rates the State with a nearly 100 per cent enrolment ratio but the learning outcomes of children as dismal. Not that India's best schools were in great shape either. The Wipro-Educational Initiatives ‘Quality Education Study 2011 showed that learning by rote is prevalent among children from top schools in the country.

Non-governmental organisations TN-FORCES, World Vision India, Social Watch – Tamil Nadu and Samakalvi Iyakkam – Tamil Nadu, reviewed the Union Budget and pointed out that there has only been a marginal increase from 4.6 per cent in 2011-2012 for children under schemes such as development and health. The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and Integrated Child Protection Services (ICPS) have not received the attention they should have got. Representatives from these four NGOs pointed out that “it was only a random redistribution of resources rather than any focussed or committed intervention”.

With the State gearing up to present its budget, academicians want the per child allocation to be increased from 54 paisa to Re.1. District level child welfare committees and a State Commission of Protection of Child Rights should be formed.

If schools are to mould the future generations then we need to see improved infrastructure, better salaries paid to teachers and an ideal student-teacher ratio. After all, a happy teacher often ensures a happy classroom. 

Treat University of Calcutta at par with Presidency: Governor

Kolkata: At a time when the two-year-old Presidency University sought a special status from the state government, West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan advocated a similar status for the 155-year-old University of Calcutta.

“There is no reason whatsoever why University of Calcutta should not be treated on the same footing as Presidency University in all matters,” Narayanan, who is the chancellor of both the state 'varsities, said.

He was delivering the convocation address at the University of Calcutta. Presidencys mentor group has recommended that the institution be regarded in the future as a crown jewel in West Bengal that will be an example for other institutions to emulate.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier said they might consider the demands. Narayanan said that in every respect the University of Calcutta is already the crown jewel among institutions of higher education.

“It therefore should be given the same special status as a centre of excellence something which is proposed to be done for Presidency University,” he said.

The granting of special status, as has been recommended for Presidency University, would mean creating positions of distinguished university professors, recruitment of an outstanding and diverse faculty capable of cutting edge research and high quality teaching accompanied by the need to offer suitable compensation to those so recruited.

“University of Calcutta should be encouraged to provide an intellectually exciting curriculum and make alterations in teaching and research that would be in sync
with its new exalted status as has been proposed for Presidency University,” the Governor said.

Regarded as one of the best colleges in India for liberal arts and science, Presidency was upgraded to university status in 2010.

To make Presidency a world-class university, the mentor group, led by Harvard professor Sugato Bose, has suggested a number of radical changes including a transparent and rigorous process to create an outstanding and diverse faculty.

Physics exam postponed following leak of paper

Bangalore: Lakhs of students of second year Pre-University science course in Karnataka were affected  as their examination for Physics paper was postponed following leak of the question paper, officials said.

The PUC board announced that exam has been postponed to a later date. Three days ago, the Mathematics question paper was leaked, leading to postponing of the exam to April two,sources said.

Police have arrested three persons in connection with the question paper leak. Meanwhile, the PUC Board has placed 14 teachers under suspension for leakage of question papers, according to an official of the Board.

Talking to reporters at Sirsi in Uttara Kannada district, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri said the leakage of Physics question paper would also be probed by CID along with the Mathematics question paper leak.

College students lathicharged

Puducherry: Police made a lathicharge to disperse students of the local Government Tagore Arts college who picketed the department of Adi Dravidar Welfare on the busy Puducherry-Tindivanam route.

Police said the students did not disperse despite assurances that government would look into their demands following which they lathicharged them.

The students demanded that government extend immediately educational assistance to the students belonging to Adi Dravidar community. More than 150 students of the college had earlier come in a procession to the department to meet the officials and present their case.

Some students sustained injuries and were treated at the out-patient department in the government hospital, sources said, adding, the agitation resulted in traffic snarl for nearly two hours.

Students of Government Law college staged a demonstration at the municipal bus terminal on receipt of information of police action against the arts college students.

Bihar govt ties up with Microsoft to showcase school of future

Patna: Bihar government announced that it would partner with Microsoft India to implement a pilot programme. It would allow it to showcase a model of a school of the future.

The initiative, to begin next month, would implement programs augmenting the scope of digital literacy and optimize the use of computers by students and teachers.

Rajesh Bhushan, State Project Director, Bihar Education Project Council, said five government secondary schools will participate in the project named 'Window to the World'.

"The aim of the initiative is to reach out to students and educational stakeholders to build capacity within the state on a limited budget," Bhushan said.

Irina Ghose, Director, Education, Microsoft India, said, "With ‘Window to the World we aim to partner with the Bihar Government to showcase how tech-enabled classrooms can increase student engagement and learning."

The pilot would also aim to provide computer aided learning opportunities for students of classes VIII- XII in government schools as well as introduce innovative platforms which will connect students and teachers from all around the world.

The state government aimed at projecting Bihar as the model state for education in the country India by providing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabled education at the secondary level, Bhushan said.

The project was announced on the occasion of Bihar Diwas Celebrations.

Calcutta university VC criticises UGC funding pattern

Kolkata: Accusing the UGC of being biased against state-run varsities, VC of Calcutta University Suranjan Das criticised it for splurging money on central universities.

“Universitys finance reflects the national scenario where the UGCs financial commitment for state universities remains grossly inadequate. It is a matter of deep regret that about 65 per cent of the UGC fund is spent for central universities,” Das said during the universitys convocation ceremony.

“If India has to move forward this centrist bias in the funding pattern of the UGC needs to be urgently rectified,” he said pointing out that his universitys finances remain primarily dependent on the state governments assistance.

In 2010-11, the University of Calcutta received Rs 230.41 crore from the West Bengal government as maintenance grant while the UGC sanctioned a development grant of Rs 29.12 crore.

Quoting UGCs latest available annual report of 2009-10, Das said while the 23 old central universities received a sum of Rs 776.42 crore, 107 eligible state universities were allotted only Rs 172.16 crore from the UGC.

Besides, the central universities received a non-plan maintenance grant of Rs 2669.72 crore, whereas the state universities are not entitled to receive any UGC grant under this head, Das said.

Matric exams deferred after question paper theft

Cuttack: The Board of Secondary Education(BSE) in Odisha has deferred the ongoing Matriculation examination after alleged theft of question papers from a school in Puri district, official sources said.

The Examination Committee which met last evening took the decision after it was found that question papers of English, Third language, Mathematics, and two papers each of Science and Social Science were found missing from Bhagabati Vidyapeeth of Bajapur in Kakatpur of Puri district.

The examination centre superintndent and three others have been placed under suspension following the incident, the sources said.

Sources said the locker of the almirah kept in the school office was broken and seals of the question packets were broken. Questions papers from the seven subjects were missing from the packets while the door of the school office was dismantled.

"Although, we have not yet received any complaint of question leak, yet we cannot take risk of conducting the examinations as per schedule since some questions are missing from the packets," Board president Satyakam Mishra said.

Engineering graduates falling prey to fraudulent job offers

After almost a year of searching for an IT job in Chennai, S. Mohana, an engineering graduate from Tirupati, recently got a mail from ‘Infinity Software Services', telling her, “Congratulations, you meet all the requirements of our vacant post for a software trainee. You can join us from February 1, after a brief round of verification about which you will be intimated shortly.”

Mohana was ecstatic, because all that she had to do to get the job was enrol for an ‘online trainee course on database management' by paying Rs 10,000 to a certain placement agency she had registered with. A month's power-point lessons on ‘basics of database management' later, she went to the offices of ‘Infinity Software Services' in Nungambakkam, only to find an entirely different company with an entirely different name functioning from that address. “It was an animation company, and the staff there had no clue of the job offer. The agency that offered me the job doesn't exist too. Even the email IDs have become dysfunctional (sic) now,” she said.

This is not an isolated incident of engineering graduates being duped. Nearly 60 students of Aarupadai Veedu Institute of Technology were lured by an agency that promised them software jobs with decent pay once they shelled out Rs. 5,000 each for training. “Despite several warnings from professors and college administration, we decided to go for the agency's offer. When you don't have campus recruitments, it is natural to fall for such offers,” said a student.

MCA students are the ones who often cheated in large numbers. S. Selvaraghavan, a student from a private engineering college on OMR, says, “Most of these agencies know that a certain number of students are not eligible for recruitment in IT companies or have many arrears. They approach us through a common Google group. While many students ignore such mails, there are some who take them seriously because the mail has employee codes, holograms, office locations, details of the training programmes — complete with name and designation of the signatory. These often convince students.”

Many of these emails originate from IDs that do not look fake. “I got an offer from hclvacancies@rediffmail.com, saying I got selected in the off-campus interview I had attended that weekend. So I had no doubts at all,” says Kannan Rajkumar, a graduate of SRM University. “When I responded to the mail, I was asked to deposit Rs.10,000 in a bank account as a refundable deposit for sending air tickets for the interview in Bangalore. Sometimes, these companies also insist on medical tests and clearly ask us to bring cash, because they don't accept payment by cards,” he said.

TCS is among the many companies often cited as a potential employer by such fraudulent offers. The company, on the careers page of its web site, has put an alert about fake job offers and has also created a toll-free TCS Careers Serviceline for people to report such job alerts. Other companies including Wipro, HCL Technologies, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Hyundai, Aricent have expressed their concerns too.

“Companies do not send job offers from free email services like Gmail, Rediffmail, Yahoomail or Hotmail. They might employ the services of an agent, agency or company to conduct employment interviews, but they certainly do not authorise people to charge any security amount or even offer jobs,” says an HR official of TCS.

NASSCOM has urged students to be careful of such fraudulent offers. “Companies have an operation process, details of which are available on their websites. Students can always call the numbers listed to get more clarity, instead of falling prey to the fake offers,” says K. Purushottaman, regional director, NASSCOM. “And, never trust any company that asks you to deposit money affront. No reputed company will ever ask you to do that.” 

1,800 students affected by US varsity fraud

New Delhi: More than 1800 Indian students were affected by the immigration fraud by the Tri-Valley University (TVU) in the US which was shut down in January last year, the Government said.

"More than 1800 Indian students were affected by this (immigration) fraud perpetrated by the TVU. As per statistics furnished by the US authorities, 766 cases of Indian students of the TUV were approved for transfer to other universities, while 480 cases are pending for scrutiny and 281 were denied transfer," Minister of State for HRD D Purandeswari said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

The Minister also noted that the government has taken up the issue very seriously with the US in order to protect the interests of the Indian students there.

"The government has strongly conveyed to the US agencies that the students, themselves a victim of fraud, should not be penalised and help responsible for the violations committed by the University," Purandeswari said.

"India has also requested that there should not be mass termination of visas of the affected students so that they do not go out of status and the affected students should be given adequate time for transfer to other universities or voluntarily return to India without prejudice," she said.

The Minister also informed the House that the Embassy of India at Washington is keeping in touch with the US Department of Homeland Security to ensure that the pending transfer cases of Indian students of the San Fransisco-based university are considered in a sympathetic manner.

NHRC recommends Rs 50,000 relief for boy beaten up by teacher

New Delhi: The NHRC has recommended monetary relief of Rs 50,000 to a Delhi school student who was a victim of corporal punishment by his teacher.

The Commission took the decision on the basis of a complaint on April 22, 2010 forwarding a newspaper clipping alleging that 12-year-old Arjun Chandra was beaten by his mathematics teacher on December 10, 2009.

The boy suffered injuries on his left shoulder and elbow for which he was operated upon. "The Commission on the basis of reports and material found that the allegations were correct and the teacher was booked under Section 323 IPC and 23 JJ Act by police under Ambedkar Nagar police station.

A charge sheet was also filed in the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Saket," the Commission said in a release.

However, despite repeated reminders, the Secretary, Department of Education, Government of NCT of Delhi did not respond to the show cause notice of the Commission for payment of monetary relief to the boy whose human rights were violated, it said.

The Commission has recommended that the Government of NCT of Delhi pay Rs 50,000 to Arjun Chandra. The Chief Secretary of Government of NCT of Delhi has been directed to send the proof of payment.

The next date for hearing on the matter in the Commission has been fixed for April 5, 2012.