Puducherry, Jan 6 (BPNS)
The Communist Party of India (CPI) has requested that the National Youth Festival scheduled to be held at the Union Territory of Puducherry on January 12th be postponed in the wake of rising Covid -19 cases.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, the CPI state secretary, A.M. Saleem said that conducting the National Youth Festival in the middle of a pandemic would put the lives of people at risk.
He said that while the central government itself had called upon the state governments and the territorial governments to increase the health infrastructure amid the spread of the Omicron variant, it was not wise to conduct a festival of this magnitude.
The CPI state secretary said that even the courts have shifted to online hearing due to the rising Covid cases and the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry had directed people to be on guard due to the rising cases, a festival in which 10,000 people are participating would put the health system of the UT out of gear.
He called upon the Prime Minister not to attend the programme and added that the CPI would contest a major protest program in the Union Territory on January 10th for the postponement of the festival.
The CPI leader also said that the party would organize a signature campaign against the festival.
It may be noted that the Sports and Youth Ministry of Government of India is conducting a National Youth Festival on January 12th to mark the birth celebrations of Swami Vivekananda at Puducherry and the Prime Minister is to inaugurate the festival.
