NEW DELHI: AIADMK today made a strong plea for postponing the civil services examination by at least two months to provide a level-playing field to candidates from Tamil Nadu battered by torrential rains.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, party leader P Venugopal said that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking postponement of the exams.
Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai speaking as AIADMK member sought a response from Home Minister Rajnath Singh who said that he has not seen the letter so far but the government would do what it finds appropriate.
Responding to an issue concerning Allahabad University, HRD Minister Smriti Irani said the process for appointment of a Vice Chancellor has already been initiated and once that is done, then he would fill up the administrative vacancies in the university.
Raising the issue, Dharmendra Yadav (SP) expressed concern over the plight of the university despite it being a central university.
He said a number of top posts including that of the VC, Registrar and examination controller were lying vacant and out of 851 authorised posts of faculty, 534 are vacant.
PDP's Mehbooba Mufti said two years ago, the UGC had asked universities to reserve two seats each for students from Jammu and Kashmir, which was over and above the migrant quota.
But so far, except for Jamia Millia Islamia University, no other institution has followed the instruction, she said and asked Irani to intervene in the issue.
TDP member Rammohan Naidu made a strong plea for greater efforts to promote Telugu language. He said though the language has been has been recognised as a classical language, the concerned facilities for its promotion have not been put in place.
Ramesh Pokhrial (BJP) made a strong plea for a national policy for harnessing non-conventional energy resources in the Himalayas so as to benefit all Himalayan states.