RAMGOPAL YADAV COULD LOSE RS POST
NEW DELHI: Once regarded as Samajwadi Party’s (SP) face who gave the fold’s official word to the media, Ramgopal Yadav’s political future appears bleak as he could now be removed from the post of SP’S parliamentary leader in the Rajya Sabha.
The expelled 70-year-old leader put up a brave face and maintained a defiant posture on Tuesday. His nameplate has been removed from SP’S New Delhi office and party circles are rife with speculation that Beni Prasad Verma will replace Ramgopal as the parliamentary party leader in the Upper House.
A section of partymen hold Ramgopal responsible of instigating Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav to take a stand against uncle Shivpal Yadav and party leader Amar Singh.
Ramgopal indicated on Tuesday that he will not give up his Rajya Sabha membership in a hurry. “Now I am a free man. The party whip will not apply to me”, he told the media. While refraining from a taking direct shot at SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, the ousted leader kept his gun trained on Shivpal and Amar Singh. “In the eyes of the masses, both Shivpal and Amar are culprits”, he said, while adding: “Ask Mulayam Singh about what is special about Shivpal and Amar”.
Referring to Mulayam’s public supportof Shivpalandamarsingh, hesaidthespchief’sutteranceshad sent out a “wrong message”. NEW DELHI: States will now decide if its schools will conduct exams in Classes 5 and 8 after which a student will be promoted to the next class.
A decision in this regard was taken on Tuesday at a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), the apex advisory body for the central and state governments on education.
Currently under the ‘No Detention’ policy, students up to Class 8 are automatically promoted to the next class even if they do not get a passing grade in their examinations. However, sources said that states will only reintroduce this system from 2018 once the Centre approves it.
Human resource development (HRD) minister Prakash Javadekar said that it has been agreed that the CABE will recommend to the Centre to bring in suitable amendment that will give states freedom to review the ‘No Detention’ policy.
“A number of states com plained of deteriorating learn ing outcomes because of the policy and opined that exams should be conducted in Classes 5 and 8,” he said.
Most states and Delhi have opposed the ‘No Detention’ pol icy, complaining that the level of learning has come down because of this provision. As the deci sions of the CABE are recom mendatory in nature, the HRD ministry is likely to take up the matter with the union cabinet.