Education must be beyond controversies: Chidambaram

Education must be beyond controversies, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said at the inauguration of the new campus of the Omayal Achi College of Nursing at Puzhal, near here.

School and college admissions attract controversies almost every year, Mr. Chidambaram said. For instance, this year, a Delhi college had declared that the cut-off mark was 100 per cent. If this is the base mark, can students score over 100 per cent, he wondered. 

This was the situation, at a time when the government was attempting to increase the number of students who take up higher education from 12 in every 100, to 15. The long term goal is to increase it to 20 while the global average was 45 in 100 students.

There were insufficient number of colleges and universities in the country. More opportunities must be created and the government alone could not do that. Private charitable institutions should be involved, actively supported by the government.

Mr. Chidambaram said that while the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme had managed to ensure 98 per cent coverage in primary sections, attention should now be focussed on retaining students in middle and high school, and then encouraging them to go on to higher education.

There was a great thirst, aspiration among students from across economic strata to take up higher education these days, even if they had to avail of bank loans. One out of every four bank loans disbursed for education was from Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University Vice-Chancellor Mayil Vahanan Natarajan said that the new facilities at the Omayal Achi College of Nursing were impressive. If a ranking of colleges were to take place, the college would probably figure right on top of the list.

Valli Alagappan, managing trustee, MR Omayal Achi MR Arunachalam Trust, said that the college had been functioning from leased premises. Efforts were taken over the years to set up its own infrastructure dedicated to nursing training. 

The motto of the trust was ‘With love to serve' and, in keeping with this, highly subsidised training was being provided to students.

Vivian Ramsden, from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, spoke about her institution's long relationship with the nursing college. 

She handed over a cheque to fund research capacity and training to principal Kanchana Khan.

Kasi Viswanathan, trustee, and Kamala Selvaraj of GG Hospital spoke.

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Young woman found murdered in Mumbai train

Mumbai: A partly decomposed body of a woman with stab injuries was found in a second class compartment of an empty local train at Kalwa railway car shed on Friday night.

The incident came to light at 11.30 pm when RPF (Railway Protection Force) on duty constable Ajitsingh Kalam in Kalwa car shed found the body of a woman lying between two seats in the second class compartment of the empty 12 car rake that had arrived from Kalyan. Thinking that she was asleep Kalam approached her and tried to wake her up. When she did not respond, he called the Thane railway police.

The railway police rushed to the spot and found that blood was oozing from her mouth and nose. "She had four stab injuries on her body and we could not find anything near her," said ACP P V Sardar of Mumbai railway police. He added that the body has been sent to the Thane Civil Hospital. The case has been registered under sections 302 (Murder) and 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence) IPC.

"Rape cannot be ruled out. We will confirm only after receiving the post mortem report," Sardar said. It seemsthe woman was stabbed to death by unidentified people 12 hours before. The body was placed aboard the train somewhere between Kalwa and Kalyan, when it stopped at a signal.

"We have formed six police teams to identity the deceased and trace the next of kin or other relatives. The team will visit every police station in the Thane district and Navi Mumbai as well as the slum colony that has mushroomed along the railway tracks between Kalwa and Kalyan to inquire about any woman with similar descriptions, who is missing." added Sardar.

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Minor girl sexually exploited by nearly 100 people in Kerala

Kochi:  Police teams have been sent to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and various parts of Kerala to nab at least 70 persons for the alleged sexual exploitation of a 14-year old girl in connivance with her father.

The action came after the girl revealed to police about her sexual exploitation, including by her own father, police said.

The child is being treated for venereal diseases at a government hospital here. According to the police who believe that 100-odd persons might be involved in the case, 29 had been arrested in recent days.

The girl told police that her father, who used to do odd roles in Malayalam films, first exploited her and then let many others in the industry and outside to do the same.

Hailing from Paravoor in Ernakulam district, the girl had revealed to a close relative about her plight following which a police complaint was filed some three months ago.

Police said 71 accused are absconding and five squads have been formed to trace them.

The victim had named some persons and a few more have to be identified, Crime Branch SP S Surendran told PTI today.

'We are collecting the details of the accused. There is no information about involvement of politicians,' he said.

Police had arrested a Tamil Nadu PWD contractor two days ago. His car which was used to transport the girl to his farm house had been seized.

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/cities/minor-girl-sexually-exploited-by-nearly-100-people-in-kerala-113230?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NdtvNews-Cities+%28NDTV+News+-+Cities%29&utm_content=Google+International&cp

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Anna Salai flyovers proposal shelved

The two flyovers proposed on Anna Salai with funds from the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) last year have been shelved. 

The CMDA had sanctioned Rs.100 crore for the piling work of the project and the Highways Department was expected to start the work on the two facilities by August 2010.

The Highways department also conducted a traffic survey at eight traffic intersections after objections were raised over locating the elevated roads on a stretch where a Metro Rail corridor was already taking shape.

However, after repeated inter-departmental consultations, the last of which was conducted six months ago, the project has received no official go-ahead and has been dropped, a senior Highways Department official said.

One of the proposed flyovers was 1.9 km long between the P.Orr & Sons showroom and the Spencer Plaza junction. 

The other flyover was proposed to be 2.9 km long, from Anna Arivalayam in Teynampet to the CIT Nagar First Main Road junction near Saidapet.

Since the flyovers were supposed to come above the underground metro rail tunnels, there was a narrow time window within which the piling work should have been completed.

Chennai Metro Rail Limited has already commenced soil testing work along Anna Salai.

Installation of the Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) is under way and full-fledged underground tunnelling is expected to begin within six months.

In such a scenario, “it is too late” to implement the flyover project, a senior government official said.

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