The Kerala unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Saturday recommended that the swearing in ceremony of the second Pinarayi Vijayan government be done vrtually, in the wake of a massive COVID-19 surge. Pinarayi on Friday said the swearing in has been fixed for May 20 and would be held at the Central Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram. The preparations are going on at a fast pace to erect a temporary space.
According to sources, around 750 to 800 people are expected to attend the event. In this context, the Kerala IMA led by its president PT Zacharias and its secretary P Gopikumar, in a statement, requested that if it's done virtually, it would send a strong message to the people in the way COVID-19 is being tackled.
They also pointed out one reason why the second wave has been very bad — was on account of the relaxations during the time of the recent elections.
"We have discussed earlier that not maintaining physical distancing and not using masks properly during the last election campaign was one of the reasons for the second wave of COVID-19. This government has once again come into power with the vote of the people and also by holding scientific views. This government's oath taking ceremony should be done virtually to give a message to the people. We expect that the new leaders will pay attention to this," the letter stated.
Protest mounts against Kerala govt's move to conduct a swearing in ceremony at Central stadium on May 20. Around 800 guests ate expected to attend. IMA joins the campaign demanding govt to conduct a virtual event pic.twitter.com/4cgUOrUtIy
— Jisha Surya (@jishasurya) May 15, 2021
The state is at present under lockdown and starting from Monday, Thiruvananthapuram and three other districts will see a triple lockdown and it's at this time, the swearing in is taking place here.
In the outgoing cabinet, the CPI(M) had 12 ministers and the Chief Minister's post, while the second biggest ally CPI had four seats. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Congress (S) and Janata Dal (S) had one seat each.
With IANS inputs