The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of leaving vacant as many as 82 plots meant for the construction of schools in order to continue its political “non-cooperation” with the Centre.
Encroachments in plots
Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta claimed that these plots have now been encroached upon instead of being allowed to provide education to thousands of children across the Capital.
“What happened to the promise made by AAP in its manifesto four years ago on opening 500 new schools? ...evidence proves that the government never had the intention to build new schools,” Mr. Gupta alleged.
“The truth is that the government is in possession of 82 vacant plots where schools could have been constructed easily. But shamefully not a single brick was laid...At a number of places, the plots have been illegally occupied by miscreants. As many as 82 plots are lying vacant in the possession of the Delhi government,” Mr. Gupta further alleged .
Accusing it of becoming a “puppet” in the hands of the Public Works Department (PWD), he said, the Delhi government was merely constructing new classroom at existing buildings.
The AAP government, he alleged, had “never” carried out a survey to ascertain whether “new schools were important or new classrooms.”
Failed to open school
“New classrooms cannot be substitutes for new schools. While it is blindly building new classrooms it has unfortunately failed to open even a single new school during its four-year tenure. The AAP government made no efforts to identify new areas where schools are badly needed,” Mr. Gupta alleged.