Kerala Class 11 seat row: KSU, MSF activists wave black flag at CM Vijayan

Kozhikode: The activists of KSU and MSF on Saturday waved black flag at Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here, protesting against the alleged shortage of plus-one (Class 11) seats in schools across the northern Kerala region of Malabar.

Kerala Students’ Union (KSU) and the Muslim Students’ Federation (MSF), the students wing of the Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League respectively waved black flags at Vijayan when he reached here to take part in a Kerala NGO Union event.

Nadakkavu police said 12 activists were taken into custody in connection with the Saturday evening protest.

The opposition parties in Kerala are protesting against the apathy of the state government in resolving the issues related to the alleged shortage of plus-one seats in schools of northern Kerala.

The Left government has been facing flak over the issue after a girl student in Parappanangadi in Malappuram district in the region died by suicide on June 11 allegedly over anxiety about whether she would get a seat for plus-one to continue her studies.

While the Congress has been demanding that additional plus-one seats be allotted in schools in the Malabar region to address the alleged shortage of seats there, the Kerala government has claimed that there is no crisis in plus-one admissions at all.