We will set up a new school every 4 km in 8 cities of Gujarat, says Sisodia ​

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia (Illustration by Suneesh K)

Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia promised on Tuesday to set up a school every four kilometres in eight cities of Gujarat if the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is voted to power in the upcoming state assembly elections.

The eight cities are Ahmedabad, Surat, Junagarh, Vadodara, Jamnagar, Rajkot, Gandhinagar and Bhavnagar.

“If voted to power, these government schools will be established within a year’s time. Parents will get to see schools at a distance of every four kilometres. We have already made our plan and our main focus is to promote education in Gujarat,” Sisodia told a press conference.

Sisodia reached Gujarat on Tuesday to address public meetings, a day after being questioned for nine hours by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with suspected wrongdoing in an excise policy change effected in Delhi.

Sisodia also promised that the government schools AAP would set up will be much better than private schools. He alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in Gujarat had not spent money to improve the infrastructure of government schools.

He said: “BJP claims to have invested a lot, but when you look at schools, you get to know the real situation. In the last 27 years, the BJP-led government has failed to establish better schools.”

Sisodia said the AAP had mapped every school in Gujarat, where 4.4 million children study in private schools and 5.3 million in government institutions.

“Once we form the government in the state, we won’t let private schools increase fees at their will,” Sisodia said, claiming the future of students in government schools was at stake.

Gujarat has 48,000 government schools, of which 32,000 schools are in shambles, Sisodia claimed. And 18,000 schools don’t even have rooms for students to attend classes, Sisodia alleged.

On Monday, Sisodia claimed after being questioned by CBI that officials had asked him to quit Delhi’s ruling AAP.

The Delhi deputy chief minister also alleged that he had been threatened that the case against him in the liquor policy case could go the way of the case against Delhi minister Satyendar Jain, who has been in jail since May after being accused of money laundering.

His allegations were denied by the CBI, which said in a statement: “The CBI strongly refutes these allegations and reiterates that examination of Sisodia was carried out in a professional and legal manner strictly as per the allegations against him in the FIR (first information report). The investigation of the case will continue as per the law.”