Public exam for Classes 5, 8 will put students into depression: Puducherry Chief Minister

Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said that public exams proposed for classes 5 and 8 would lead the students into depression.

Talking to mediapersons at the Assembly premises here on Sunday, he said that based on Centre's new education policy, the Tamil Nadu government had announced public exams for classes 5 and 8. But it would not do any good for the students, he said, adding that he would have discussion with his Education Minister in this regard.

"In his Twitter page, Home Minister Amit Shah has mentioned that Hindi must be the only language of India," he said. In India, people from different religions and communities speaking different languages are living together. In states, people speak and write in their mother tongues and those languages are official languages of the respective states. But since the day Modi became PM, the Centre is trying to impose Hindi," Narayanasamy said.

The CM said that despite opposition from several quarters, the BJP government was trying to impose the one-nation-one-language formula. Quoting from former PM Jawaharlal Nehru, he said Nehru had clearly said regional languages would be the official languages of the states and English would be the link language of the nation. But now, through the new education policy, the Centre is trying to impose Hindi, he regretted.

"The death of techie Subhasree by a fallen banner has created an awareness. Immediately after this incident, I called the Chief Secretary and asked him to remove all banners in Puducherry. Order has been issued regarding this and all municipality and commune panchayat commissioners are instructed to clear the banners immediately. If any one failed, severe action would be taken." he added.

As for the free rice issue, the Lieutenant Governor's stand is not acceptable and it makes democracy absurd, he said. The decision to distribute free rice to people was taken by the elected government. But the L-G is blocking the scheme, he said, adding that till the Centre gave approval for free rice distribution, money would be deposited in beneficiaries' account as welfare minister had already said.