Hingoli (Maharashtra), Aug 15 : Cockroach Janta Party convenor Abhijeet Dipke on Saturday launched the ‘School Thik Karo’ campaign from his native village in Hingoli district, alleging that poor students suffered due to the government’s neglect and demanded capping of fees of private schools.
The CJP will also undertake a similar movement regarding poor health conditions at public hospitals.
Dipke travelled to his native village, Santuk Pimpri, and attended a flag hoisting ceremony on the occasion of Independence Day.
He visited a Zilla Parishad school and checked basic facilities, where he found that toilets lacked water supply.
“If basic things like water are missing from government-run schools even 80 years after India became independent, how is the country going to develop?” Dipke told reporters.
Dipke flagged the alleged precarious condition of the school, claiming broken windows and inadequate benches for students.
“We have a form comprising a checklist where it can be mentioned whether there are basic amenities available in the school or not. We will gather the data from schools located in Maharashtra and nationwide. Then we will compile the data,” he said.
The CJP convenor said he would visit government-run schools in other talukas of Maharashtra to check whether facilities are available for students in the next phase of the “School Thik Karo Campaign”.
“The budget of the Central government has been curtailed for education,” he alleged.
Dipke alleged that government-run schools are being shut to benefit private ones.
”We have seen that over 94,000 state-run schools have been shut down in the past ten years in India. How can a nation be strengthened by shutting down schools when more schools need to be opened?” he asked and accused the government of favouring private schools.
If children achieve big after studying in government schools, who will go to private schools, Dipke questioned.
He alleged the government has failed to provide facilities in schools and there is no equal opportunity for students.
”There should be freedom of equal opportunities. Until equal opportunity is available, we cannot say that our country is developing. The students are making videos saying they don’t have good roads to reach their schools. This shows the government has failed to provide facilities at state-run schools,” he added.
During the inspection of the school in his village, the CJP founder claimed the washroom was apparently cleaned just ahead of his arrival.
“If a basic facility like water is missing from our government schools even after 80 years of independence, then how is the country going to develop? If water is not available at schools, will students go to their homes to use toilets?” he questioned.
Dipke claimed windows at the school are broken and covered with banners of Deputy CM Eknath Shinde.
“This is a satire on the system of our country. There are no benches in the school. There are only four benches while the number of students is more. If there are benches in private schools, why not in government schools?” he added.
Dipke said the CJP will undertake a similar movement regarding poor health conditions at public hospitals.
”We are going to raise health-related issues. When we visit public hospitals, we see people (patients) sleeping on the floor. People have to wait for surgeries. For a CT scan, the wait extends to one week,” he alleged.
He said political discourse will be decided by youth from rural areas and not only by people from cities.
”People should come forward and ask the government about utilisation of funds. We will see that youth from rural areas will come forward. Politics in the country will not be decided by the people in cities, but young people from rural areas will also participate in it,” Dipke added.
He demanded fees of private schools be capped.
“People are paying Rs 1-1.5 lakh in fees. How will poor children get education? Therefore, fees of private schools should be capped,” Dipke said.
Earlier in the day, before leaving for his native village, Dipke had criticised political parties for not doing enough to improve the infrastructure and standard of government schools.
“People have now understood that they should talk about education, which is the need of the hour. No matter which political party ruled, nobody worked for government schools in states. Now there is a need, and we can make them work by asking questions,” he told reporters in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.
He questioned the source of funding for huge banners that had cropped up in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar city on Friday when a Tiranga rally was organised in the presence of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
While announcing a nationwide campaign to improve government schools in villages on Monday, Dipke had called on parents to conduct social audits of basic facilities and sarpanches to take up the task of improving the institutions.
“We have made a new Parliament, a new PM house. Why have we not been able to build new schools in our villages? Do we not consider the children of farmers and labourers the future of our country?” he had asked.
Dipke had said that village children still have to walk long distances to attend school and often find basic facilities such as drinking water and toilets unavailable.
