Distribute quality bicycles to students
Education dept issues circular to DDPIs and BEOs
Bantwala, Jan 18: The education department has issued a circular to all districts and taluks to verify the quality of bicycles to be distributed to the students and thus, taken care about distributing quality bicycles to the students.
The department, in its circular, asked the concerned DDPIs to contact the suppliers and verify the data filled in the online random verification forms for the bicycles already distributed to the students. Earlier, the department has asked the concerned DDPIs to withhold the distribution of bicycles. But distribute the bicycles to the students studying in 8th standard in government and aided schools in 2018-19 academic year. Before that, the department should check whether the bicycles are on good quality or not and submit the action taken report to the department, the circular said.
Following complaints about the substandard quality bicycles distributed to some schools, the department has asked the concerned authorities to distribute the bicycles to the students only after verifying their quality, due to which, the distribution of bicycles was withheld in Bantwala taluk.
As per the government order, the department officials have visited the Kalladka and Mudipu schools and verified the quality of bicycles recently and submitted a report to the higher officer.
As soon as the government issue an order to distribute the bicycles to the students, he would ask the schools to distribute them, BEO Shivaprakash told Varthabharati.
What’s there in order?
The department has asked the authorities to distribute the bicycles pending for distribute immediately. While distributing them, the concerned divisional and district level inspection teams should check whether the bicycles are in good quality and fit for usage and submit a report to the department.
Before distributing the cycles, a three-member committee comprising SDMC president, head master and local government employee should be constituted and verify the cycles. Before distribution, the inspection teams should check quality, frame, fork, handle, reflector, handle bar, tool kits and others, the circular said.
Impact of Varthabharati report
Though the present academic year is almost completing, the bicycles were not distributed to the government schools. More than 4,000 bicycles to be distributed in Bantwala taluk were kept in Kalladka and Mudipu government schools. Varthabharati published a special report on January 7 about not distributing the cycles and drew the attention of the government and the education department.
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Will not accept 'Veer Savarkar Award' nor attend the ceremony: Shashi Tharoor
Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi (PTI): Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday categorically stated that he would not accept an award named after VD Savarkar, nor attend a related event, even as a senior party colleague wanted the Congress MP to not accept any honour named after the ideologue whom he claimed "bowed before the British."
Tharoor said that he will not accept the "Veer Savarkar Award" and also won't attend the event where it will be presented in the absence of clarifications about its nature or the organisation presenting it.
Tharoor, the MP from Thiruvananthapuram, also said that "it was irresponsible on the part of the organisers to announce my name without my having agreed to receive it".
Earlier in the day, Congress leader K Muraleedharan told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram that no party member, including Tharoor, should accept any award in the name of Veer Savarkar "as he had bowed before the British."
Muraleedharan said that he does not believe that Tharoor will accept the award as doing so would insult and embarrass the Congress party.
Tharoor later told reporters in the national capital that he heard about the award on Tuesday and that he was not going for the ceremony.
"I heard about it yesterday only. I am not going. I am not here," he said in response to a question on Wednesday on his participation in the award ceremony.
Subsequently, in a post on social media platform 'X', the Congress MP said, "In the absence of clarifications about the nature of the award, the organisation presenting it or any other contextual details, the question of my attending the event today or accepting the award does not arise."
He further said that he learned from media reports that he was named as a recipient of the award when he went to Kerala to vote in the local body polls on Tuesday.
He said he had clarified then that he was neither aware of, nor had accepted, such an award.
"Despite that, today in Delhi, some media outlets continue to ask the same question. Therefore, I am issuing this statement to clarify the matter unequivocally," Tharoor added.
Following Tharoor's statement, Aji Krishnan, the secretary of the Highrange Rural Development Society (HRDS) India which is presenting the award, told a TV channel that the Congress MP was informed about the matter well in advance.
He said that representatives of HRDS India and the chairman of the award jury had met Tharoor at his residence to invite him and the MP had asked for a list of the other recipients of the award.
"We gave him the list. He has not yet informed us that he will not come for the event. Perhaps he is scared as the Congress has made it an issue," Krishnan claimed.
Kerala Law Minister P Rajeev said it was Tharoor's decision whether to accept the award or not.
Tharoor was chosen as one of the recipients of the inaugural Veer Savarkar International Impact Award 2025, instituted by HRDS India, on Wednesday in New Delhi.
On Tuesday, he had said that he heard about the award through the media and that he was not aware who was giving it.
"I am not aware of anything related to the award. Let me find out what it is," he had said.
