CBSE helpline for students

New Delhi (PTI): With examinations round the corner, the CBSE will offer counselling to students through a telephone helpline for two months beginning this Friday.

As many as 42 teachers, psychologists and social scientists will operate the helpline individually from 13 centres including Delhi, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Bhubhaneswar, Visakhapatnam and Coimbatore.

New centres have been set up in Yemen and Sharjah, taking the total number of such centres abroad to five, a CBSE release said today.

The CBSE is also offering counselling through a multi-tier system to reach far flung areas, the release said. An interactive voice response system, question and answer columns in newspapers and online counselling have also been arranaged.

Cell jammer, CCTV for Tihar

New Delhi (PTI): Tihar jail authorities have decided to instal mobile jammers and closed-circuit televisions inside the sprawling complex.

Asia’s largest jail, which is bursting at its seams with a population of nearly 12,500 inmates, far exceeding its capacity of 5,000, is having a tough time maintaining security.

“We will instal CCTVs in all the jails by the end of May. We are also planning to set up mobile jammers, though we are yet to get the permission from the cabinet secretariat,” director-general (prisons) B.K. Gupta said.

The jail authorities have already installed biometric photograph and finger print identification systems, multi-zonal door frame metal detectors and high capacity X-ray scanners.

Killer pupil

Madurai (PTI): A former student of a private school in Virudhunagar district of Tamil Nadu allegedly stabbed his teacher to death on Tuesday.

Jaiganesh, 18, a plus-two dropout, was angry with his mathematics teacher Selvaraj, 45, for reprimanding him for not concentrating on his studies.

LeT ‘conduits’

Sangareddy (PTI): Two alleged sympathisers of the Lashkar-e-Toiba were arrested from this Andhra Pradesh town on Tuesday, police said. Mohammad Omar Farooquddin and Abdul Rehman Khan were arrested during a routine check.

Thar Express

Jodhpur (PTI): The Thar Express to Pakistan, suspended since rains in Rajasthan damaged railway tracks five months ago, is likely to resume operations in March, a railway official has said. North Western Railway is repairing the tracks.

An ashtadhatu bell, said to be one of the world’s biggest, has been installed at a temple in Orissa’s Dhenkanal. It is 3ft 10in high, has a circumference of 13ft 4in and weighs 11.5 quintals.