‘Farmers’ agitation should inspire steel plant workers’
The Hindu
United stand would force Centre to rethink its decision: CPI(M) leader
CPI(M) Polit Bureau Member B.V. Raghavulu on Sunday called upon steel plant workers to draw inspiration from the farmers’ agitation in Delhi and continue their united struggle to force the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre to repeal its decision on the strategic sale of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP).
Addressing a press meet on Sunday, Mr. Raghavulu said that the Centre has remained adamant in its stand despite all political parties supporting the agitation by VSP employees who have been organising relay hunger strikes for the past 297 days. He expressed optimism that if the steel workers remain united, the BJP government would be forced to repeal its decision.
Referring to the proposal of the Centre to privatise the coke oven batteries, he said that the CPI(M) was opposed to privatisation, be it partial or complete. He called upon all other parties to clarify their stand on the issue and appealed to Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to take the lead and adopt another resolution in the Assembly against the privatisation of VSP to increase pressure on the Centre to reconsider its decision.
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.