New Delhi: After the AAP’s allegation that teachers have been deployed for duties related to stray dogs, Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood on Tuesday said “no such role” has been assigned to them and accused the opposition party of running a “misinformation” campaign.
The Aam Aadmi Party MLA Sanjeev Jha, however, rejected this dismissal of its claim by the Delhi government and said Sood is either “not aware of what is happening in his department, or he is spreading lies”. Addressing a press conference at the Delhi Secretariat, Sood said earlier in the day that AAP leaders had spread false claims on social media suggesting that teachers were being diverted from their academic responsibilities to count stray dogs, and challenged the party to place any official order or circular in the public domain to support its allegation. Sood said the Directorate of Education (DoE) had only asked schools to appoint nodal officers to deal with issues related to stray dogs in the vicinity of educational institutions in compliance with a Supreme Court order, but clarified that no specific duty had been assigned to teachers. Referring to an official clarification issued by the DoE on Monday, Sood said the department had categorically stated that no directions were issued for assigning any stray dog-related work to teachers. The education minister further alleged that the AAP had, in recent days, made several similar claims aimed at creating administrative confusion, including allegations regarding the suspension of tehsildars and sub-registrars, and questioned why the party was opposing action against officials accused of corruption.