The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday continued to question the performance of the Aam Aadmi Party government in the education sector, saying that it did not set up a new school despite having 82 vacant plots earmarked for it.

The AAP is projecting its work done in the education sector to garner public support in the Lok Sabha elections.

But BJP MLA Vijender Gupta, who is also the leader of the opposition in the Delhi Assembly, questioned it saying, “They had promised to construct 500 new schools in their manifesto. They have 82 vacant plots in different parts of the city, but not a single new school has been opened in the last four years. They are just building classrooms even in areas where a new school building could have been constructed.”

Gupta shared the information which he had obtained from the government’s education department. His presser comes a day after BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Goel visited a government school in Mustafabad and alleged that the facility was running two classes simultaneously from a large hall.

Hitting out at chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia, who is also the education minister, Gupta said that their “false propaganda” was exposed with the information provided by the education department. Of the 82 vacant plots, the government plans to develop schools on 30 sites.

“But no work has started so far at any of the sites,” said Gupta.

With the AAP raising the issue of full statehood and blaming the Centre for stalling development projects in Delhi, Gupta said, “They don’t need Centre’s permission to construct new schools .... the reply from the education department is evidence to prove that the government had never had the intention to build new schools.”

Gupta, along with BJP MLAs OP Sharma and Jagdish Pradhan, added that 25,000 posts of teachers remained vacant. The BJP alleged that the government spent Rs 1,400 crore on the constructing 8,000 (approx) classrooms.

“It is questionable when 25,000 posts of teachers are lying vacant, why new classrooms are being constructed. They are spending close to Rs 20 lakh on the construction of each classroom. While the number of student in government schools is declining, the government is hurriedly constructing classrooms,” said Gupta.

He alleged that only 320 out of 1,125 government schools have principals. The AAP government has created head of school position who work as acting principal.

“The department has informed that 38 principals are deputed on administration duty in the department,” he said.

First Published: Apr 11, 2019 14:06 IST