Is This What You Mean By IIITs Of Global Standards, Chandrababu?

Faridpeta, Srikakulam district: Today my Padayatra moved through Etcherla mandal. This morning some of the victims of the scam met me near Kesava Reddy school. Among them was 80-year-old Bharatamma, a widow. Her husband had been a government employee and her son was a differently-abled individual. She gets a monthly family pension and had borrowed three and a half lakh rupees for her grandson’s education and deposited this money with the Kesava Reddy School.

The management had assured her that the money, kept as deposit, would be returned to her after her grand son’s education. Later, however, it went back on its word and she is in dire straits unable to pay high interest rates and support her family at the same time, she complained. Arunamma had another such woeful tale to narrate. She got her son admitted in the same school after having mortgaged her house. Even after her son completed his 10th standard, the deposit is not being returned. She finds herself in a miserable state now unable to repay the amount due as mortgage to free her house and to educate her son at the same time.

Lakhs of families have got affected in this manner across the state due to scams by Kesava Reddy School and AgriGold managements, among others. It is wicked on the part of the government higher-ups to eye the hard-earned savings of the victims, protect the management and the perpetrators of these scams rather than stand by the victims and try to alleviate their suffering.

My Padayatra moved by the IIIT premises in Srikakulam. A few students came and met me. Chandrababu Naidu announced IIIT in Srikakulam with much pomp and ado three years ago. To date not a brick has been laid here and as a result, students who are meant to study in this institute are going all the way to IIIT, Nuzvid. With elections fast approaching, the government hastily transferred 500 students to Srikakulam and they were housed in Twenty First Gurukul buildings built during my father’s tenure. Another batch of 500 students were similarly shifted to a private engineering college here, which had been shut down. Even when students complained that there were no facilities and basic amenities, the authorities paid no heed, the students complained. Students of first year and 30 there are still studying at IIIT, Nuzvid they said.

Chandrababu Naidu seems to have set up a IIIT only in name. His intention seems to have been only to announce the establishment of a IIIT in Srikakulam and then claim credit for it. How does one explain his illogical actions such as running the IIIT set up here in Nuzvid instead? What can one say about his decision to inconvenience students of IIITs denying them basic facilities and hurriedly shift them to Srikakulam in view of imminent elections? Beneficiaries of Rajiv Swagruha met me near Anamitra. It was my father’s cherished dream to build homes for the poor and middle classes. His untimely demise turned into a curse for them. After all these years, their houses have still not been built.They are tormented on the one hand, by loans and on the other, by rents which they are forced to pay. Their repeated pleas to the government went in vain and they were compelled to approach the courts in the end for the government to hand over their homes to them. They complained that they were forced to live in semifinished houses with no facilities. They are are torn between the devil and the deep sea, and added to this, the sand mining activity of Telugu Desam leaders is such that it poses a threat to the foundation of their houses, they feared.

Governments may change, but welfare schemes should not be abandoned or are diluted in a way that they impact the lives of the poor is such a drastic manner.

My poser to the Chief Minister—IIITs are meant to serve poor students from the most deprived backgrounds in the rural areas, providing them with education of international standards. Without buildings or facilities and without appointing qualified staff, without adhering to quality educational standards, what is the point in announcing the setting up of such institutions? Does it not amount to putting the future of students in peril?

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