More liquor shops in UP than govt schools, says Akhilesh

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Monday launched a scathing attack on the Uttar Pradesh government, alleging that it is deliberately ignoring the cause of education while promoting liquor trade in the state.

Addressing a press conference in Lucknow, Yadav said that several schools that were shut down by the government have still not been reopened, leaving thousands of children without access to education. “The government does not want people to study. They have closed schools, and those schools remain closed till today. At the same time, they have opened liquor shops in large numbers across the state. Uttar Pradesh now has more liquor shops than New York,” he said.

The former chief minister also criticised the action against teachers working in PDA schools, which were originally set up to provide education to children from poor and marginalised families. “Even the British did not commit such atrocities against schools. But today, teachers of PDA schools are being targeted and harassed. The government is crushing the very institutions that provide education to the underprivileged,” Yadav alleged.

Taking a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party’s poll promise of “achhe din,” he said that instead of development, the double engine government has snatched away the rights of backward communities.