THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Ignoring appeals from various quarters for either a low-key or virtual swearing-in, the LDF on Monday decided to go ahead with the event at the specially made venue at the state capital's Central stadium. The swearing-in ceremony will be held at 3.30 pm on Thursday. Governor Arif Mohammed Khan will administer the oath of office and secrecy to Pinarayi Vijayan and his team of 20 ministers.
The only compromise made by the LDF leadership is to limit the number of invitees to 500 instead of the 750 invitees planned initially. "Five hundred is not a big number considering the special nature of the event. It is an inaugural event that will determine the fate of three crore people. Considering the extraordinary situation, we have minimised the number of invitees," said CM Pinarayi Vijayan.
He said the stadium has the capacity to accommodate several thousands and in 2016 over 40,000 people had gathered there for the swearing-in.
"There are 140 MLAs elected by the people and 29 MPs. Representatives of legislature, executive and judiciary, the three pillars of democracy, need to be part of the event," said the CM.
Referring to the raging criticism of the ceremony, he urged all to take the decision in the right spirit and refrain from seeing it in any other manner.
"Instead of confining all the invitees to a hall, the event will be organised in the stadium which is an open place. There is a facility to ensure social distancing and proper ventilation. Only bare minimum people will attend," he said.
In social media, several pro-left handles had aired their reservations over organising such a ceremony when the Covid-19 second wave is raging. An online petition demanding virtual swearing-in launched by a group of youngsters had gathered hundreds of signatures within two days.
On Monday, chief secretary VP Joy issued a special order allowing the conduct of swearing-in function in the presence of 500 invitees, exempting the event from the triple lockdown restrictions. Only those with a proper invite will be allowed at the function. All invitees must carry a Covid-19 negative certificate obtained after RT PCR/TRUNAT/RT LAMP test conducted 48 hours before the event.
A testing counter providing antigen test will also be set up at the venue. All invitees need to report before 2.45 pm at the venue. Double masking is mandatory and invitees won't be allowed to remove the masks during the duration of the programme. No refreshments will be provided at the venue.
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