Lokesh slams Jagan for stubborn decision on exams

Amaravati: TDP National General Secretary and MLC Nara Lokesh on Saturday flayed the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy Government for 'not cancelling or postponing' the 10th class and intermediate examinations in accordance with the appeals made by thousands of students and their parents in the face of rising threat from the Coronavirus second wave.

Lokesh said that after he had written his letter to the Government, it seemed that CM Jagan Reddy had taken an even more stubborn attitude with total disregard for the safety of the students.

Addressing a press conference here, Lokesh asked why the Government was failing to take note of the fact that the preventive measures would be very difficult to implement in the examination centres. Not even 6 students can be accommodated in each room if 6 ft distance has to be maintained. There was no enough infrastructure to meet this demand if the examinations were to be held for lakhs of students. In the first wave, the Government promised to give face masks to each family but had failed to fulfill the same.

Nara Lokesh demanded an explanation from the Chief Minister as to why his Government turned indifferent to the 48-hour deadline issued by the TDP. In the 'digital town hall' held by the TDP, the students have expressed their opinion that the exams should be either cancelled or postponed. Some have said that infections have already spread during the practical examinations. Not just the students, these infections would thereby spread to their parents, teachers, auto and bus drivers.

Accusing the Government of being negligent, Lokesh said that the TDP would hold another 'digital town hall' meeting tomorrow to elicit opinions of the students and parents on the future course of action. They would also discuss the need to start a legal struggle against the 'adamant' YCP regime. Already, the 10th class exams were cancelled in Telangana, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. These exams were postponed in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Himachal Pradesh. Even the CBSE and the ICSE have cancelled the exams. While the rest of the country was taking such pro-student measures, the Jagan Reddy regime was going totally in the opposite direction.

Nara Lokesh pointed out how the CM was taking all the care about himself by not coming out of his Tadepalli residence and was holding the review meetings there duly maintaining enough distance between the officials. His Government was not taking such precautionary measures for the safety of students. In the last 48 hours, the YCP leaders cared only to attack 'Lokesh' with abusive language but not tried to take the opinion of the students and parents. If it had any sincerity, the Government should have asked its 'grama and ward volunteers' to gather opinion from the parents and people.

Lokesh said that over 1.5 lakh people have expressed their solidarity to the TDP campaign for cancelling the examinations. About 70,000 persons have even left their opinions, explaining how they were getting exposed to the deadly disease. This Government should realise that the examination centres may turn into the super spreaders of the virus, which was not good for the State as a whole. All put together, the examinations would expose over 8 lakh students, teachers, parents and drivers to the dangerous infections.

Calling for utmost personal care, Lokesh said that the Government should focus on preventing hospitalisation of the Covid victims by providing them advance telemedicine and online help to them in the initial stages itself. This was all the more necessary considering the shortage of beds, shortage of oxygen and also rising number of deaths. The Government was hiding details of the deceased as well. In Visakhapatnam, 18 bodies were cremated at one place but the official figures reported just two deaths. In just one day, 11,700 positive cases were recorded and deaths were put at 38. The rate of positivity increased among the young population when compared to the first wave.