Thiruvananthapuram,June 9 (Agencies):Commandant Dr K C S Ray of Central Industrial Security Force today assumed charge as chief of the security wing at the International Airport here today.
Dr Ray was earlier serving in CISF training centre in Orissa, airport sources said Admission as per exams by college management consortium: SFI KANNUR,June9 (Agencies): Expressing concern over the moves by a section of self-financing professional college managements in Kerala to evolve independent admission norms in open violation of the Supreme Court order, the SFI today sought a single window system by the management consortium in admission and selection process.
The professional educational institutions are having own admission and selection norms forcing the aspiring students to apply separately in each institution thereby throwing to winds the admission guidelines set by the apex court in the Inamdar and Islamic academy cases, SFI general secretary K K Ragesh told a press conference here.
"To avoid complications in the present system the college management consortium should conduct a Common Entrance Test and publish the rank list instead of allowing individual college managements, so that meritorius students get priority," he said.
To overcome the emerging situation, the Justice P A Muhammed committee should be entrusted the responsibility of evolving a new admission and selection norms besides the panel should also be told to intervene on the moves to charge exorbitant fees for the professional educational courses.
The Cpi-M led LDF government should take the initiative to hold talks with the college managements to ensure 50 per cent merit quota in admission, Ragesh said while expressing concern over the moves by a section of managements to scuttle the talks with the issue remaining unresolved.
He warned that the SFI would launch "intensified agitation" if the private professional college managements did not change their resolve to have own admission norms.
Ragesh said the Centre's decision to accord minority status to a few educational institutions was taken casually without adhering to any stipulated norms and this would directly support the vested interests of a section of managements who wanted to amass huge profit, leading to grave imbalance in the society.
"According minority status to a few professional colleges would help only the affluent families and a comprehensive reservation system is required to help deserving wards from economically and socially backward pursue their higher studies and to bring social justice," Ragesh said.
Ragesh said the government had every right to decide the admission norms and fee structure of the professional colleges run with direct or indirect government support.
Number of HIV infected Indians lower than official estimate NEW DELHI, June 9 (Agencies): The number of Indians infected with the HIV in the country is substantially lower than the current official estimate of 5.2 million, according to National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and UNAIDS.
NACO attributed the dip in the prevalence level among women sex workers and in antenatal clinics, especially in southern states, that have brought the figure down.
"The survey is still on, but early trends have shown that the figure is much lower," a senior NACO official said today.
Though, he refused to reveal the figures, he said they have come to conclusion because the prevalence level among women sex workers has gone down.
Analysis of existing sentinel data has shown that prevalence in antenatal clinics has shown a decline in some southern states _ Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh _ which are the high-risk states.
The same trend was also seen in Maharashtra.
"This time, we are more sure of our figures because the sentinel sites have increased from 728 to 1162," he said.
Denis Broun, country coordinator of UNAIDS, agreed that the previous figure of 5.7 million could be an "exaggeration".
UNAIDS had maintained that there was 5.7 million people living with HIV in India, while the government had insisted on the figure of 5.2 million.
"I could now say that the earlier numbers were exaggerated as compared to the current trends, which is showing a substantially low figure," Broun said.
