News Brief
Quota of freedom fighters’ wards to be scrapped
The Madras High Court on October 10 directed the Tamil Nadu State Government to strike down the quota for children of freedom fighters in medical education. VG Sunramaniyan, son of a freedom fighter filed a petition seeking directions to the Health and Family Department, Directorate of Medical Education, and the Medical Council of India to allot an MBBS seat to his daughter under the Freedom Fighters Quota. Justice V Ramasubramanaian observed that the quota for freedom fighters’ children was only a special category for reservation and such reservation was not a Constitutional guarantee.
Bangalore university to digitise mark cards
To make document verification easy for employers and employees, Bangalore University is introducing e-verification by digitising all marks cards since the University was established in 1964. At present, the University does a manual verification of documents which takes at least two to three months. E-verification will come as a relief to candidates residing abroad as it will hardly take 24 hours.
Andhra university colleges fare badly
Andhra University may have earned a name for itself in the country, but has failed to monitor its affiliate colleges. The success rate of students at the degree colleges has fallen to a record low. Considering the case of one of the major courses — BA — in the academic year 2012-13, 1,556 students appeared for the first-year examinations in which just 209 passed out, registering a pass percentage of 13.4. In the second year, while 1,163 students appeared for the examinations, just 151 (12.9 per cent) passed. The academic year 2013-14 saw an overall 20.7 pass percentage in first and second years. Similarly, 29 to 37 per cent BSc first-year students as against 36 per cent BCom students.
SC order puts curb on candidates’ choices
A recent Supreme Court order, barring medical and dental students in Kerala from applying for vacant seats if they had already secured admissions in the earlier allotments, has denied several meritorious students a chance to pursue medical courses at cheaper fees.