RJD MP urges Centre to reopen all colleges, universities immediately

NEW DELHI: Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Kumar Jha on Thursday urged the Centre in Rajya Sabha to immediately reopen all colleges and universities, saying imparting education is getting severely affected due to the Covid pandemic. Making a Zero Hour mention, Jha said students are not getting education for the last almost two years due to the closure of educational institutions.

He also called for immediately shutting down online colleges and universities. "This is causing damage to education and students are suffering," he said. "I urge the government to immediately open all universities and colleges in the country," he said in his submission. He said many students do not have digital access, and due to this, they are unable to get an education. He said as a teacher himself, he has seen students shutting off their videos. Imparting of education through online mode is not interactive, he said.

"This is the biggest impediment in knowledge production and sharing and I urge the government to send a message to everyone by starting education in offline mode," he said. He also called for the reopening of all hostels in educational institutions.

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Deepak Prakash (BJP) alleged that there were increasing incidents of illegal mining in Jharkhand and accused the state government and West Bengal of not taking action. He demanded the setting up of an SIT to check illegal mining in border areas of Jharkhand and West Bengal. John Brittas (CPI-M), in his zero hour mention, accused the government of ignoring the senior citizens who are suffering due to the Covid pandemic. He said the government has not increased the contribution towards Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme for them, as most of them have spent their lives in unorganised labour. He also alleged that there has been a drastic reduction in budgetary allocation from Rs 60 crore to Rs 10 lakh to Artificial Limb Manufacturing Corporation of India. "The government should shed its arrogance and also look at the lives of senior citizens who have made the country proud," he said. M Shanmugam (DMK) raised the issue of jobless textile workers in spinning mills that have shut down in Mumbai and who are languishing due to non-payment of their salaries. Shanmugam urged the prime minister to intervene and sort out the issues of workers. Sujeet Kumar (BJD) raised the issue of filling up of vacancies in central university of Koraput in Odisha. He said this has serious consequences for imparting education in the backward areas.

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Narendra Jadhav (Nominated) called for expediting Covid vaccine coverage in tribal-dominated areas of the country. He said tribals are vulnerable and make up for as much as 50 percent of the population and made a special mention of Manipur and Nagaland where only around half the population is vaccinated even with the first dose. "I earnestly appeal to the health minister to take into account this as lack of access to vaccines can disproportionately expose the tribals to the pandemic," he said. Mausam Noor (AITC) raised the issue of the devastation caused by river erosion in West Bengal and urged the government to find a permanent solution to the problem. Jharna Das Baidya (CPI-M) asked when will import-export start from the bridge built in Tripura along the Bangladesh border.