Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday asked the state police to investigate a fake message, which he claimed was making the rounds on WhatsApp, about the reopening of schools in the state. The CM took to Twitter to confirm that the message that was being circulated as tweeted by him was false and asked the public to not pay attention to it.
“A fake announcement, purportedly issued from my Twitter account, about non opening of schools is being circulated on WhatsApp,” Sarma tweeted, sharing an image of the false information. “This is a fake message and should not be given heed to. @assampolice please file an FIR,” he added.
Earlier on Thursday, the Assam state government announced that physical classes would be reopened from the first week of September for final year students from higher secondary to post graduate level. Contradicting this, the fake message, denied by Sarma, said that the reopening had been postponed later to November as the Covid cases in the state were not controlled. However, Sarma’s confirmation showed that the government would proceed with its plan to reopen the institutions from September first week.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier on Thursday, the Assam state government announced that physical classes would be reopened from the first week of September for final year students from higher secondary to post graduate level. Contradicting this, the fake message, denied by Sarma, said that the reopening had been postponed later to November as the Covid cases in the state were not controlled. However, Sarma’s confirmation showed that the government would proceed with its plan to reopen the institutions from September first week.
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Regarding the reopening of schools, the state government has mandated at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine for students above 18 years of age, teachers and workers in these educational institutions. While at least dose was mandatory for attending classes, both doses were mandated for staying in hostels, the government said.
“The cabinet decided to start classes for HS final, Degree final and PG final year from 1st week of September, 2021,” news agency PTI reported citing a communique from Sarma’s office. State education minister Ranoj Pegu said that the standard operating procedure (SOP) for reopening the educational institutes would be announced on or before August 31.
Meanwhile, 587,499 total confirmed infections have been reported from the state so far, of which 499 were reported on Friday. The death toll rose to 5,627 after nine more people succumbed to the illness. As many as 6,185 active cases of the disease are currently present in the state, according to the latest bulletin from the National Health Mission (NHM), Assam.