‘Victory for students’: CJP’s Ashutosh Ranka welcomes restoration of Rajasthan school

Jaipur: As the Rajasthan government undertook a drive to strengthen and restore all dilapidated schools across the state, Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) co-convener Ashutosh Ranka on Wednesday welcomed the move, calling it a victory for students.

His reaction came after restoration work began at a government school in Bagru near Jaipur, where the CJP’s team had come under attack during a visit for inspection on August 21.

Speaking to IANS, the CJP co-convener said: “We are happy that restoration work of that school has begun today even though stones were hurled at us, women were misbehaved with, and our car windows were broken. More than us, this is the victory of those students who have been studying at a buffalo shed for more than two years.”

Ranka stressed that quality education is the right of every student, whether in Rajasthan or elsewhere, and asserted that the CJP will keep fighting for them.

“All schools across the country should be repaired like this,” he added.

Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Prem Chand Bairwa on Wednesday said the state government was the first to launch a campaign aimed at transforming and improving government schools across the state, asserting that all schools found to be in a dilapidated condition would be strengthened and restored.

Bairwa said that while a bulldozer was used at the particular school that had come under scrutiny, it was not an isolated action. He said the government had identified schools with damaged or unsafe buildings across the state and the Chief Minister had sanctioned the required funds to address their poor condition.

Speaking to IANS, he said the government had already been working to identify schools facing infrastructure-related problems and had been making alternative arrangements wherever necessary.

“The work was already being done everywhere earlier as well by identifying all the schools facing issues and running them through alternative arrangements. We were already carrying out work on that wherever such conditions exist,” he said.

Further, he said many of the structures were old and had been constructed several years ago, making it incorrect to suggest that the problem emerged only after the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power.

IANS