Former CM Siddaramaiah appeals to K'taka govt to promote school students

BENGALURU: Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday appealed to the Karnataka government to promote school students in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The senior Congress leader claimed that online classes were not helping students as they were being conducted at the whims and fancies of teachers.

"That's why I advised the government to promote school students this year because of the prevailing COVID-19 situation," the leader of opposition in the legislative assembly told reporters. Siddaramaiah said he had written three letters to the government highlighting the problems faced by the students but the latter did not pay heed to them.

Reiterating his allegation of the government being 'hand in glove' with the private institutions and wanting to "trouble" the students, he recalled protests staged by parents in the city against various education institutions. Siddaramaiah in a series of tweets on Sunday charged that the government was aiding the private schools instead of helping the parents and their wards.

His statement had come on the day when the parents staged a demonstration in the city against the "exorbitant" fees charged by certain private schools. Following his statement, Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar on Monday took to Twitter to hit out at him. "Day before yesterday the leader of the opposition spoke an utter lie of 'Kodavas eat beef' and then regretted it. Today he spoke another big lie that I am (education minister) hand in glove with the private education institutions. May he get the inspiration to speak truth", the Minister said.

Kumar was referring to Siddaramaiah's recent statement -- in the context of the anti-cow slaughter bill passed in the Assembly -- that Kodavas eat beef to suggest that minorities are not the only ones who eat beef as the BJP projects. As the statement triggered a backlash from Kodavas, the former Chief Minister regretted his remarks saying they were misinterpreted by the media. "I never intended to say that Kodavas eat beef".

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