Minister for School Education and Literacy Madhu Bangarappa criticised right-wing activist Chakravarthi Sulibele’s allegedly mischievous tweet on Karnataka State Examination and Assessment Board scheduling the March 1 preparatory examination for SSLC students in the afternoon.
Addressing a press conference in Mysuru, Mr. Bangarappa referred to the activist’s tweet and clarified that the SSLC examination scheduled for March 1 had been slotted for afternoon while the rest were slated in the morning session as the II PUC examinations were also scheduled to start on the same day.
“Many schools were also the centres for II PUC exams. To avoid a clash, we pushed the SSLC preparatory exams to the afternoon session,” he said before lashing out at the activist’s tweet for questioning if the examination scheduled for March 1, a Friday, had been slotted in the afternoon session to accommodate “namaz”.
“Don’t you think he is spreading hate? We have already started receiving complaints against it,” he said referring to Mr. Sulibele’s tweet. When a reporter asked why the government was keeping quiet, Mr. Bangarappa said “We will fix it. We know how to fix it”.
Claiming that the right-wing activist did not have any “common sense”, Mr. Bangarappa said such persons become active whenever elections were approaching, but added that the BJP will not be able to win any polls in Karnataka by raising emotional issues. He expressed confidence that the people of the State were firmly with the Congress Government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar for implementing the promised guarantee schemes.
Mr. Bangarappa also criticized former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy for his tweet taking potshots at the Congress government for collecting ₹ 0 from SSLC students towards preparatory examinations.
He sought to remind the JD(S) leader that the rules relating to collecting money for preparatory examinations was introduced in 2021-22 by the government run by the BJP whom he has now joined. “It had been fixed at ₹60. Our government has brought it down by ₹10 to ₹50,” he said.
He said the State government was not trying to fill its coffers, as alleged by Mr. Kumaraswamy, by collecting the preparatory examination fee, which at the rate of ₹50 from each of the 8 to 10 lakh students will work out to no more than ₹5 crore. He pointed out that the Congress Government was spending anywhere between ₹5,000 to ₹7,000 for each household, which worked out to ₹9 crore for each gram panchayat.
