NEW DELHI: Against the backdrop of teacher training programme being revamped, the government today said it was also working on introducing refresher courses to help them acquire knowledge about the latest developments in the field.
“The National Council for Teachers Education is working on a refresher programme. This is being done to ensure that teachers are navigated through a huge maze of knowledge and information developing in this fast changing world,” School Education Secretary Vrinda Sarup said at an event today.
The programme was organised by NCTE to commemorate Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary.
The government had earlier announced from the next session onwards, the two teaching degrees – B.Ed and M.Ed – would be two-year courses.
At a state education ministers conference last week, Sarup had said that an integrated four-year course leading to B.A and B.Ed degree will be started immediately after class XII to attract bright minds from an early age into the profession.
Those who want to be primary school teachers can get into two-year diploma in education course after class XII.
Pursuing the M.Ed programme under the open and distance learning mode has been dropped.
Subjects such as yoga, information and communication technology, gender and children with special needs will be included in all the teacher education programmes, she had said.
New Delhi: An eyewitness on Monday identified in a Delhi court the six accused who had allegedly gangraped a 51-year-old Danish tourist at knife point in January 2014.
Deposing as a prosecution witness, Shivji Singh, who was working as a gardener with Indian Railways, told Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja that he had seen all the accused sitting with the woman in a park and at that time, one of them was raping her.
Singh deposed that on the evening of January 14, 2014, when he returned to her room and started preparing food, he heard a voice which appeared to be an alarm raised by a woman and found that it was coming from a temple in the park.
“I saw all the accused sitting nearby the foreigner lady and Mahender was committing rape upon her. All the other accused were sitting surrounding the woman and Arjun was having a knife in his hand,” Singh deposed in the court.
Singh, whose statement remained inconclusive on Monday and would continue on Tuesday, said the accused saw him and showed him the knife with a gesture that he would be killed after which he became frightened and returned to him room.
The witnesses identified the six men in the court and said they were ruffians who resided in the area and used to commit petty offences.
The police, in its charge sheet, had said that the eight persons, all vagabonds, had robbed and gangraped the Danish tourist at knife-point on the night of January 14, 2014 after leading her to a secluded spot close to the Divisional Railway Officers’ Club near New Delhi Railway Station.
The eight accused, including the two juveniles, were arrested in the case. The two juveniles are facing an inquiry before the Juvenile Justice Board.
The six adult accused Mahendra alias Ganja (24), Mohd Raja (22), Raju (23), Arjun (21), Raju Chakka (22) and Shyam Lal (55) are in judicial custody.
The eight have been booked under Sections 376 (2)(G) (gangrape), 397 (robbery or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) and 392 (robbery) of IPC.
A Team of all female climbers from Nepal have achieved a mountaineering first, scaling seven of the world’s highest peaks on seven continents.
Their aim was to show other women in Nepal that climbing isn’t just a sport for men, so they set out on the quest in 2008, starting with Mount Everest in their own backyard. Their goal was realized in late December when four of the women made it to the top of Mount Vinson in Antarctica.
Today, the team returned home to a hero’s welcome. The team leader, Shailee Basnet, told reporters at the airport in Kathmandu, “A big journey that started seven years ago has finally culminated in a seventh climb, so, after years of saying one done, two done, three, four, five, we can now say: seventh climb!”
In six years the women scaled Everest in Asia, Kosciuszko in Australia, Elbrus in Europe, Kilimanjaro in Africa, Aconcagua in South America, Denali or McKinley in North America and Vinson in Antarctica.
More than 4,000 people have scaled Mount Everest and more than half of them have been from Nepal, but of that number only 24 have been women. The first Nepalese woman to reach the summit, Pasang Lhamu, made it in 1993 but died on the descent.
The seven women financed their climbs with personal savings, sponsors and fund raising events
Panaji: Controversial right wing outfit Sri Ram Sene will hold a meeting in Belgaum city on January 26 to finalise its plans for starting its activity in Goa, where the administration has not extended the ban imposed on it.
“A detailed strategy about when to start a branch in Goa and other things would be discussed on January 26 when the Karnataka state-level meet would be held in Belgaum,” Sene chief Pramod Muthalik said last evening.
Muthalik said he might come to Goa on January 27, a day after the meeting in Belgaum.
The organisation had hit the headlines in 2009 after its members attacked boys and girls at a pub in Mangalore.
Conforming to its Hindutva agenda, Sri Ram Sene has been opposing the so called “pub culture” in the country.
The controversial outfit was banned on August 20, 2014, under section 144(4) of CrPC from entering Goa till December last year, after opposition by collectors of both districts in the state.
The ban was imposed following adverse report by the state police which feared law and order problem, if the outfit was allowed to operate.
The state government has not extended the ban after that.
Muthalik said that the organisation will carry forward its “Hindutva agenda” in Goa.
“Pub culture and other issues can be decided later on. First we have to start our branch in Goa,” he said.
PTI
Senior Shiv Sena MLA Prakash Bala Sawant passed away in the early hours of Friday after a prolonged illness. He was 64. The funeral took place this afternoon at the Bandra crematorium. The body was kept at his house till 2 PM to pay the final respects after which it was taken around his Bandra East constituency before the last rites.
Sena President Uddhav Thackeray was also present at the cremation.
“He had been keeping unwell for a long time. Two days back he was admitted to a hospital but was brought home later. He passed away at around 12.30 AM,” a Sena leader said.
Sawant, a three time corporator, was considered close to the Thackeray family. He had first won the state Assembly election from Bandra East constituency in 2009 on the party ticket.
In the Assembly elections last year, Sawant trounced BJP’s sitting corporator Krishna Parkar, MNS’s Shilpa Sarpotdar and Congress leader Sunil Bagdi.
Condoling Sawant’s death, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that people of his constituency have lost a fighter who stood up for the needs of common man.
“I received immense assistance from him during his tenure as an MLA. He was known to be a go-to man for the common people who could look up to him in times of distress. He had also done immense work for people when he was a BMC corporator,” Fadnavis said.
PTI
Under the ‘Massive Open Online Course’ (MOOC), students from both engineering and other courses will have access to 18 courses online which will be conducted by seven professors from IIT-K and five professors from IIT-M.
Professors from IIT-K and IIT-M have made 18 courses available online, by recording their l.
PTI
The Supreme Court today sought CBI’s response on a plea by Congress leader Rasheed Masood, who was disqualified from Rajya Sabha after being sentenced to four years imprisonment in a graft case, against rejection of his bail petition by the Delhi High Court.
A bench of justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C Pant issued notice to the probe agency on the plea of Masood, 68, who had become the first MP to lose his seat after the Supreme Court’s ruling on disqualification of convicted lawmakers.
The former Rajya Sabha lawmaker, in his plea filed through lawyer Archit, sought bail on various grounds including that he is acutely diabetic and taking insulin several times a day besides other medicines for his ailments.
He has challenged the order of the High Court which refused to grant him bail on November 14, last year during the pendency of his appeal against the conviction in the graft case.
“Without expressing any opinion on the merit of the case, lest it would adversely affect the final outcome of the appeal, needless to say the allegations against the appellant (Masood) are very serious in nature in as much as the genuine candidates were deprived of the medical seats because of the appellant in conspiracy with co-accused,” the High Court had said.
The leader had, before the High Court, submitted that the trial was going on against him for the past 17 years.
Masood has also challenged the trial court’s verdict convicting him and sentencing him to a four-year jail term.
He was held guilty by the trial court in September 2013 of fraudulently nominating undeserving candidates to MBBS seats allotted to Tripura in medical colleges across the country from the central pool as Health Minister in the National Front government of 1990.
The trial court had also imposed a fine of Rs 60,000 on him.
Masood’s conviction and sentencing was the first case after the apex court judgement that struck down a provision in the Representation of the People Act, under which incumbent MPs and MLAs could avoid disqualification till pendency of the appeal against conviction in a higher court.
The nine students, who had fraudulently got admission in the medical colleges, were convicted for cheating. Two of them, including Masood’s nephew, were juvenile at the time of the offence and their case had been transferred to the Juvenile Justice Board on January 25, 2007.
The then Tripura Chief Minister Majumdar and the then Health Minister Kashi Ram Reang were also accused in the case.
They passed away during the pendency of the trial.
Masood had between 1990-91 illegally and fraudulently, in conspiracy with the then resident commissioner of Tripura, Gurdial Singh, nominated his nephew, another juvenile and Sachidanand Dwivedi to seats allocated from central pool for students of Tripura.
Sachidanand has also been held guilty for conspiracy, cheating, forgery for purpose of cheating, and under the provisions of PC Act.
CBI had said in the charge sheet that Tripura does not have any medical college of its own.
The apex consumer commission has denied insurance claim to a man for his commercial vehicle, saying that at the time of accident the driver was holding a licence for only light motor non-transport vehicle.
National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) bench, presided by Justice K S Chaudhari, passed the order while allowing a revision petition filed by ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co Ltd against Karnataka State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.
The state commission had upheld an order of district consumer forum asking the firm to pay Rs 2,45,983 to the complainant Mainuddin, owner of the commercial vehicle.
“At the time of accident, driver of vehicle was not possessed with the valid driving licence and in such circumstances, OP (firm) has not committed any deficiency in repudiating claim and district forum committed error in allowing the complaint and state commission further committed error in dismissing appeal.
“Hence, revision petition is to be allowed,” NCDRC said in an ex-parte order as Mainuddin failed to appear before it.
The apex commission noted that the driver was holding licence to drive LMV (light motor vehicle) non-transport, which was not valid for the commercial vehicle he was driving.
In its order, NCDRC also noted that to drive a transport vehicle, licence is issued for three years, whereas for light motor vehicle, licence is issued for 20 years.
Licence was issued to driver, valid from September 20, 2004 to September 19, 2024, but he was not permitted to drive transport vehicle, it noted.
Mainuddin had earlier told the forum that his vehicle, insured with firm, met with an accident in October 2006 and, thereafter, he sought an insurance claim of Rs 2,79,983.
As the claim was not settled, Mainuddin filed a complaint before the district consumer forum.
The insurance firm in its appeal had submitted that the vehicle was a transport vehicle which was driven by a person not holding valid driving licence.
Governor’s rule was imposed in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday after political parties failed to muster the requisite number in the 87-member Assembly for staking claim to form the government.
The decision came after Governor N N Vohra submitted a report to the President last night stating that Omar Abdullah had requested to be relieved of the post of being a caretaker Chief Minister.
The report contained some suggestions including the option of a spell of Governor’s rule in the wake of no party getting the number required to form a government after the highly-fractured verdict in the Assembly elections, official sources said here.
According to section 92 of J&K constitution, the governor doesn’t have to consult either the council of ministers or the President to impose the rule.
J&K elections concluded on December 20 with PDP emerging as the single largest party with 28 seats, BJP with 25 seats, National Conference with 15 and Congress 12 seats. If there is no decision on government formation till January 19, then a governor’s rule is imminent.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had last night forwarded the report to the Prime Minister’s Office for necessary action.
President Pranab Mukherjee is understood to have given his concurrence for Governor’s rule which has been imposed in the state for the sixth time since 1977.
Omar had said the state needed a full-time administrator to deal with the situation along the border with Pakistan and providing relief to flood-affected people in the Kashmir Valley.
He was asked to continue as caretaker Chief Minister on December 24 after his resignation in the wake of defeat of his party, National Conference (NC), in the Assembly poll results declared on December 23.
The new Government was required to be constituted before January 19 when the term of the current Assembly expires. Omar’s decision may have also hastened the Governor’s decision to send a report to the Home Ministry.
The state is witnessing such a stalemate for the second time in 12 years. A similar situation had arisen when Farooq Abdullah had asked the then Governor G C Saxena to relieve him of being a caretaker Chief Minister as PDP and Congress were taking a lot of time in cobbling up numbers to form the government.
Despite intervention by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Abdullah refused to continue as the caretaker Chief Minister and Governor’s rule had to be imposed for a fortnight from October 18, 2002.
– See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/governors-rule-imposed-in-jammu-and-kashmir/#sthash.NIHOB914.dpuf
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