1. Students Protest Against NEET
Three days after Anitha allegedly ended her life dejected over not being able to join the MBBS course despite scoring 1,176 marks in Plus Two, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry witnessed sporadic protests by college students who demanded that NEET-based medical admissions should not be followed in the State.
Students of SRM University and Valliammai Engineering College in Potheri near Chennai formed a human chain urging the government to abolish the NEET, which they said would serve as the best tribute to Anitha. Joseph, who coordinated the protest, said Tamil Nadu must be allowed to admit students to MBBS/BDS courses based on Plus Two scores of aspirants similar to an exemption granted to Andhra Pradesh under Article 371 (D) of the Constitution.
Source: The Hindu
2. CMRL Takes the Fight to Birds
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The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) is preparing for a battle with angry birds. There is no catapult this time; instead, modern battle axes have been lined up below – ultrasonic bird repellers and strobe lights.
CMRL has had to resort to such devices after it found that birds roosting on the rafters of its depot in Koyambedu have been littering its fancy trains with their droppings, damaging the modern rakes. The depot of the Chennai Metro Rail in Koyambedu, spread over 26 hectares, houses 36 trains.
Source: The Hindu
3. All Party Meet Seeks Transfer of Education to State List
An all-party meeting convened under the leadership of DMK working president MK Stalin on Monday pressed for granting exemption to Tamil Nadu from NEET-based medical admissions and urged the Centre to shift education from the concurrent list to the State list.
At the meeting, it was decided to hold a public meeting in Tiruchi on 8 September in support of these demands and condemn the State and the Centre for being responsible for the death of Anitha, a medical aspirant from Ariyalur district who ended her life.
Source: The Hindu
4. Consumers Slam Hike in Price of LPG Cylinders
Domestic liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices have gone up by Rs. 74 per cylinder in September. Last month, the price of a non-subsidised cylinder in Chennai was Rs 533 and this month it is Rs. 607.
Oil industry sources explained that this is just the beginning of the upward trend, which is likely to continue till March next year. “Unlike prices of petrol and diesel that are linked to crude oil prices, LPG prices are linked to international butane and propane rates. Butane and propane are combined to make LPG. The hike happens when consumption increases in the West when their heating requirement increases,” the source explained.
Source: The Hindu
5. Hold Local Body Polls By 17 Nov, Court Tells SC
The Madras High Court on Monday directed the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC) to issue a notification by 18 September, announcing the proposed conduct of local body elections in the State and complete the entire election process, including polling and declaration of results, before 17 November.
The first Division Bench, of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar, passed the order while disposing of a batch of cases, including a writ appeal preferred by TNSEC against a single judge’s 4 October order on the issue and a writ petition filed by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam for conduct of elections at the earliest.
Source: The Hindu
6. Colleges Asked to Check Ragging
Higher education institutions have been directed to install complaint boxes on their premises so as to help victims of ragging bring the occurrence of such incidents this inhumane activity to the notice of the administrators.
In addition to the complaint box, suitable provisions should be made on official websites of the colleges, if available, to lodge complaints about ragging by the affected students, the institutions were told at a meeting convened by the district administration on Monday.
Source: The Hindu
7. Tapping Technology to Collect Data on Biodiversity
A mobile phone may be all you need to take part in a data gathering exercise. In an effort to crowdsource information for databases, and encourage citizen participation in biodiversity conservation, voluntary organisations and academic institutions have come together to organise workshops on the use of free and open source software tools and mobile applications to document the city’s vegetation.
City-based voluntary organisation Care Earth Trust has joined hands with the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, and Open Source Geospatial Foundation-India to hold the workshops for citizens, professionals and students.
Source: The Hindu
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