Akhilesh terms EVMs threat to democracy, bats for ballot papers
Lucknow, May 29: Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday questioned the fairness of the electronic voting machines (EVMs), terming them the "biggest threat to democracy".
Addressing the media here, the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister referred to the snags in EVMs in the Kairana parliamentary and Noorpur assembly bypolls on Monday and said that after this, people were in no mood to trust the machines.
Reiterating his demand of use of ballot papers in all future elections, Akhilesh Yadav also demanded a repoll in every place where EVMs were used for voting in the Monday's bypoll. He also exhorted all political parties to come together and raise a united voice against the EVMs and seek all future voting through the traditional mechanism of ballot papers.
Akhilesh Yadav also expressed suspicion that the EVMs were tampered and manipulated under a "nefarious design" to defeat opposition candidates.
Slamming the Yogi Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state, he claimed that people were feeling cheated at their "hollow promises". Their work so far in one year has been dismaying, the SP chief said while pointing out several issues like pending arrears of cane growers and farmer distress.
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Over 13,000 teaching posts vacant in KVs, Navodaya schools: Education ministry
New Delhi (PTI): Over 13,000 teaching positions are vacant in Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) across the country, the Ministry of Education informed the Lok Sabha on Monday.
The information was shared by Union Minister of State for Education Jayant Chaudhary in response to a written question.
"A total of 8,618 and 5,083 teaching posts are lying vacant in KVs and JNVs, respectively. Vacancies keep on arising due to opening of new schools, retirement, resignation, promotion of employees, transfer, employees going on lien to another department and upgradation of schools," Chaudhary said.
"Filling up of vacancies is a continuous process and efforts are made to fill up the vacancies as per the provisions of the relevant recruitment rules of KVs and NVs," he added.
The minister noted that teachers are also engaged on contractual basis for temporary duration by KVs and NVs to ensure that the teaching-learning process is not hampered.
"Efforts are made to recruit regular teachers at the earliest so that interest of students does not suffer. The consistently high percentage results achieved by KVs and NVs over the years clearly demonstrate that academic standards and students’ performance are duly maintained and are not compromised," he said.
