Sisodia hits out at BJP-run DDA for not giving enough land for school

NEW DELHI: Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday lashed out at the BJP-run DDA for not giving enough land for construction of a school that has been operating out of an Eidgah, calling the BJP anti-education.

No immediate response was available from the BJP or the DDA.

Sisodia said the DDA committed to the high court to give 4,000sq metre of land to the Delhi government for construction of a school which has been operating out of an Eidgah since 1976 in Ballimaran area. "But now the DDA is saying it would allot just 1,600sq metre of land and reduce the number of classes that would be taught. They are planning to give just a lane for the school which is not acceptable," he told reporters.

"Once again, the BJP has proved its anti-education stand. They want our country to remain illiterate," he said.

"In 1976, the four-storey Qaumi Senior Secondary School at Sadar Bazar was razed to the ground during the Emergency period. The Central Board of Secondary Examination-affiliated school was then shifted to a DDA Colony, but it neither got land nor building," said Sisodia.

It is pertinent to mention that things have not changed much even as four decades passed by. Thirteen 'classrooms' with tin shed roofs and walls are built in L-shape at the corner of the Eidgah premises. A ceiling fan, a blackboard on a stand and rusted iron benches comprise each 'classroom'.

The principal's office and the teachers' room are adjusted in between.

As a senior secondary boys' school with around 800 students at present, classes run in two shifts due to space constraint.