Gujarat varsity invites terror accused as chief guest for convocation

Bengaluru, May 3: Undergraduate and postgraduate students skipping online classes held by their universities run the risk of being debarred from writing their exams. 

State universities, which are monitoring the attendance of online classes, are asking their affiliate colleges to send the monthly online attendance details and this would reflect in their regular attendance. This would apply to those studying professional courses like medicine and engineering. 

State medical education minister Dr K Sudhakar has asked all medical colleges to regularly send attendance details to the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS).

RGUHS vice-chancellor Dr Sachidanand confirmed to DH that the varsity is indeed monitoring the attendance of students. “Online classes are equal to classroom teaching. (Such method of conducting classes) are necessary during the Covid-19 pandemic and the nationwide lockdown,” he said.

According to the Supreme Court directions, students should have 75% attendance to be eligible to appear for the final exams. There could be relaxations if they have health issues. If students are bunking online classes, it would reflect on their minimum attendance necessary to appear for the exams, the vice-chancellors of state-run varsities said.

Bangalore University vice-chancellor Prof K R Venugopal said most of the students are attending online classes and teachers are messaging the parents of those who are irregular. “(Of course) if they fall short of the minimum attendance, they won’t be allowed to appear for the exams,” he said.

Bengaluru North University vice-chancellor Prof T D Kemparaju said the administration has asked its teachers to record details of students attending online classes and update the university.

Mixed signals 

Meanwhile, the University Grants Commission (UGC) on Wednesday issued guidelines directing all universities to treat the lockdown period as “deemed as attended” for students and research scholars. Experts pointed out that the order would prompt students not to take the online classes seriously.

“Arrangements have been made at the state varsities to make students attend online classes compulsorily and students are also serious about it. Now, because of the UGC guidelines, they may bunk classes,” said the vice-chancellor of a state-run university.

Kalaburagi, Mar 9: As the International Women's Day was celebrated all across the globe, the Department of Post inaugurated the first-ever all-women-employees operating post office here in Kalaburagi.

"Today, we have declared the Jagat Post Office under the Kalaburagi district as women's post office. From today onwards, women staff is going to work here exclusively," CG Kamble, Assistant Superintendent, Post Office, told media.

One of the employees of the post office inaugurated on Monday said: "We are happy that we can work freely as all the employees here are women. Similarly, the government must also take steps to identify one of the offices in the state as only women employees' office."

Udupi, Feb 16: A man, who was trapped in 15-feet-deep hole following a landslide during borwell digging work at a remote area in the coastal district, was finally rescued after a prolonged effort today.

The man, identified as Rohit, suffered minor injuries in the incident.

The incident took place at Maravanthe village near Baindur in Udupi district.

Rohit was trapped when the land around borewell was being dug collapsed suddenly. It took around six hours for the rescue workers to rescue him.