PERAMBALUR: At least 200 nursing students had to endure hardship for nearly three hours at the collectorate on Monday as they point to District Collector P Sri Venkada Priya and Perambalur MLA M Prabakaran having delayed their arrival for a government programme on the premises to mark World Population Day.
The World Population Day Pledge organised by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare was arranged to be taken at 11 am at the collectorate upon the arrival of the collector and MLA Prabakaran.
Over 200 nursing students from various colleges who were called to the event arrived at the collectorate by 9.30 am and waited for the programme to start. But there was no sight of the collector or the MLA even after two hours had passed. The skies then opened for light showers.
Unable to bear the pain by standing in the rain for long, the nursing students who claim to not have been offered any shelter, perched on the tiled walkways outside. The event delayed by over an hour commenced by 12.15 pm on arrival of Collector Priya and MLA Prabakaran. Following the event that lasted all of around 15 minutes wherein the students and the officials took the pledge, the gathering dispersed.
One of the participating nursing students said, "We arrived two hours before the event and waited. Even then the officials did not arrive on time. We could not even sit for a few minutes. Some students like me were struggling to stand. The prolonged standing gave me leg pain.
Even when it rained, the officials at the collectorate did not offer us shelter." Another student participant said, "I came here without eating in the morning. Even water was offered to quench my thirst only after the event. This put us in hardship."
"Some of the students were holding banners with awareness slogans for over an hour. It caused their hands to ache. None of the officials standing there noticed it," she said.
When enquired, MLA M Prabakaran said, "I had eight events lined up on Monday. I had informed the officials that I would arrive only by 11.30 am. But it got delayed by half an hour. It is wrong. But I did not make the students stand." The authorities could have seated the students on the premises. Otherwise, they could have let me known about it. This is not my fault. However I will ensure this doesn't happen again, he added.