Nagaland tribe seeks access to probe reports on Oting killings

Nagaland‘s Konyak tribe has sought access to investigation reports by the ‘s SIT and theArmy‘s court of inquiry on the December 4 massacre of 13 tribesmen from Oting village in a botched counter-insurgency operation.

The union said if authorities fail to meet their demands, Konyaks will boycott all national events within its customary jurisdiction.

The Konyaks are the majority group of Mon. It said the tribe’s “non-cooperation” against the military will continue until Justice is done.

Uncertainty over Assam tableau making Republic Day event cut

Uncertainty looms large whether the tableau ofAssam with the scene where young freedom fighterKanaklata Baruais seen hoisting the Tricolor will be selected for the Republic Day parade in New Delhi.

With India celebrating Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, to commemorate 75 years of the countrys Independence, Assam had high hopes that Kanaklatas valour will steal the limelight in the national capital. However, even after chief ministerHimanta Biswa Sarmas letter to the DEFENCE minister, to help the teenage martyrs bravery shine in the national capital, the is finding it difficult to get an apt answer from the Centre.

Kanaklata Barua, born in Barangabari in 1924, joined a group of – fighters in 1942 at the call of the leaders of the Quit India Movement. One of the youngest martyrs of the Quit India Movement, Kanaklata, then 17, fell to the bullets of Police as she marched towards Gohpur police station in northern Assam to hoist the Tricolour.

E-resources access likely to edu institutes

For the first time, the higher Education department will provide access to e-Resources to universities and selected autonomous colleges in the state. The e-resources include research databases, e-journals, magazine subscriptions, e-books and discovery service to libraries.
The department has signed agreements with aggregators likeEbscoand Elsevier to provide these Services for the benefit of students, scholars, researchers and faculty members of 32 autonomous colleges and 12 state public universities.

The institutions will get the access through theOdisha State Higher Education Council.

According to the plan, the council will give access toScienceDirectto universities only. ScienceDirect is a website, which provides access to a large bibliographic Database of scientific and medical publications of the publisher Elsevier.

Rs 2.4 crore more to fix rain-hit NHs in Tamil Nadu

TheUnion ministry for road transportand highways has approved an additionalRs 2.4 crorefor repairing national highway stretches in TN damaged during the recent floods.

NH stretches across the state, particularly those connecting Chennai withMadurai, Bengaluru and Coimbatore, were battered by unprecedentedrainin November. Some of them were temporarily closed due to excessive flooding. Potholes started to show up, making the commute dangerous.

Govt plans law to rein in private deemed varsities

is planning to bring in a piece oflegislationas part of exploring limited Options to maintain control over thedeemed to be universitiesthat are about to come up in the state inprivate sectorsooner than later.

As part of the move, the state higher Education department has issued an order early this month engaging theKerala state higher education council(KSHEC) to prepare and submit to the government a detailed report on the broad outline within which the deemed to be universities can be allowed to function. The order clearly mentions what triggered the department to order an immediate study by the council.

The UGC (Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations 2019 leaves little elbow to the state government to exercise discretionary powers to resist or deny eligible institutions from seeking and obtaining deemed to be university status from the UGC. According to the regulations, an institution applying for the deemed to be university status should satisfy a set of eligibility conditions such as it should have been in existence for not less than 20 years, should have NAAC accreditation with at least 3.26 CGPA for three consecutive cycles.

New policy: Guest lecturers upset over 15-hour work week without job security

Guest lecturers, who have been saddled with 15 hours of work, instead of the earlier eight hours, are upset over the states new policy. More importantly, they say half of the guest lecturers TEACHING in undergraduate or postgraduate colleges across the state, will lose their jobs.

The has decided to increase the monthly honorarium to Rs 26,000 to 28,000 from Rs 11,000 for guest lecturers. Those candidates who have cleared UGC-NET or completed their PhD, will be paid Rs 30,000 to Rs 32,000 (Rs 13,000 earlier salary).Karnatakahas around 14,000 guest faculty.

Telangana: E-classes for govt & small private schools now hang in the balance

While students of corporate or international schools are continuing Education with online classes, those from government and private budget schools will have to study on their own for now.

The state had extended holidays to all educational institutions, except medical colleges till January 30. ThoughOsmania UniversityandJawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, directed colleges to conduct online classes, no such directions have been given by the school education department.

The has not yet released the schedule of digital classes either, while many private budget schools have not yet made arrangements to conduct online classes.

When it comes to private budget schools, the Telangana Recognised School Management Association (TRSMA) members said that hardly 5% to 10% of schools, which have been conducting classes in the hybrid mode.

Andhra Pradesh govt to have full budget in March, spadework kicks off

The finance department started preliminary exercise to ready the state budget for 2022-23 financial year. The , which could not present full annual budget to the assembly in the last two years due to Covid-19, is gearing up to present the full budget to the assembly in March.

The finance department is contemplating to ready draft allocations by the second week of February and discuss with chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to take his views. After incorporating the chief ministers plans, the final budget will be readied and submitted to the state cabinet a little before presentation to the assembly.

The state government is focusing on making best use of the centrally sponsored schemes to carry the welfare schemes ahead. The finance department has directed department chiefs to remove or reduce the schemes which were found to be irrelevant. The finance department had issued detailed guidelines to all the special chief secretaries and secretaries to seek the budget allocations.

Goa has used just 20% of midday meal monitoring, evaluation funds in 20-21

Goas utilisation of the management, monitoring and evaluation (MME) funds under the midday meal programme continues to be low at 20% for the academic year 2020-21. TheMME fundsare provided by the central government to states to be able to evaluate implementation of themidday meal schemein their respective states and to improve the programmes delivery accordingly.

A team of officials from the Union Education ministry, after reviewing implementation of the midday meal scheme in Goa for 2020-21, expressed concern over the low utilisation of funds. As against the allocation of Rs 73.2 lakh of central assistance as MME funds, Goa has utilised only Rs 15 lakh or 20%.

Goas utilisation of the MME funds has not been low only during 2020-21 due to the pandemic. The state has been found to be lax in evaluating the scheme right from the early days of its implementation from 2004-05.

Funds allotted to Goa under MME by the Centre have consistently remained underutilised. Of the Rs 19.5 lakh allotted to Goa during 2010-11 as central assistance towards MME, the state utilised only Rs 10.2 lakh.

The utilisation by Goa was only 52% against the Union ministrys expected utilisation of 75%. This was even lower than the utilisation of 58% of the MME funds during 2009. A similar trend has continued over the years.

Maharashtra cuts market price of land to be acquired for highways by 20%

TheMaharashtragovernments notification of January 14 to reduce the of land to be acquired for building state and national highways by 20% is set to meet with opposition. As per current norms, the government pays four times the existing market rate.

After the Centre made the land acquisition law, it allowed states to modify the existing laws by the way of a notification. The state governments move will severely reduce the compensation received by land owners, mostly farmers.