NEW DELHI: Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its “anti-education” policies and not allotting the desired land through its Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for construction of a school running in makeshift tents since the time of the Emergency.
“The DDA committed to the Delhi high court to give 4,000 sq metre of land to the Directorate of Education for constructing a school. However, the size of the school has now been reduced to 1,600 sq metre, along with the number of classes that would be taught,” Sisodia said. “The decision was taken on the direction of the Lieutenant Governor in a meeting held by Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash a month after the high court order, without taking the Delhi government in confidence,” he claimed.
Sisodia was referring to the Qaumi Senior Secondary School operating inside an Eidgah at Quresh Nagar in central Delhi, with around 800 students at present. The Central Board of Secondary Examination-affiliated school was then shifted to a DDA Colony, but it neither got land, nor a building. Four-decades later, the school runs classes out of an Eidgah in two shifts due to a space constraint, with primary classes held in the morning while the rest are held in the evening.
Thirteen ‘classrooms’, with tin, shed roofs and makeshift walls are built in an L-shape at the corner of the Eidgah’s premises. A ceiling fan, a blackboard on a stand and rusted iron benches comprise each ‘classroom’. School principal Mohabbat Ali was hopeful that a plot will be allotted in the next three months after completion of all formalities of the court order.
Rundown
The Qaumi Senior Secondary School is currently operating inside an Eidgah at Quresh Nagar in central Delhi, with around 800 students. It runs classes in two shifts, with primary classes held in the morning while the rest are held in the evenings.