LUCKNOW: Making a case for a thorough probe into the school bag faux pas by Gujarat government wherein bags purchased by Akhilesh government for free distribution among school children were distributed in schools in Gujarat, Samajwadi Party on Wednesday condemned the manner in which the SP chief’s photographs were removed from the bags and stickers were pasted on them to cover up the goof-up.
Akhilesh took to Twitter to mock Gujarat government’s blunder. “Sawal yeh hai ki UP ke baste Gujarat mein kaise bat rahe hain. Sticker ke peeche tasweer to chipai ja rahi hai…lekin Samajwadi kaam aur rang phir bhi dikh raha hai (The bigger question is how bags manufactured in Uttar Pradesh are being distributed in Gujarat. They may hide the photo by a sticker but SP’s achievements and colour are refelcting),” tweeted Akhilesh.
Raising question over Gujarat government’s action, SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said that it was imperative for the BJP governments, both in UP and Gujarat, to explain how bags meant for poor schoolchildren in Uttar Pradesh were distributed in Gujarat.
“There should be a probe to ascertain how these bags, which were purchased by the UP government and bear the government’s, landed in Gujarat,” he asked.
Nearly 12,000 bags with Akhilesh’s photo were distributed among schoolchildren at an enrolment drive in tribal-dominated Chhota Udaipur last week, leaving the Gujarat government red-faced and compelling it to order a probe into the gaffe.
The matter came to light when some parents removed a sticker on the school bags using a thinner only to see a prominent sticker of Yadav emerging from the background. The bags also carried a punch line ‘Khub Padhao, Khub Badhao’.