CJP welcomes Rajasthan school restoration drive as win for children’s education

Jaipur: The Rajasthan government has begun restoration work on a dilapidated government school in Bagru, near Jaipur, prompting Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) co-convener Ashutosh Ranka to describe the move as a “victory for students”.

The development comes after the CJP’s inspection team was attacked at the same school on 21 August, when stones were thrown, women members of the team were allegedly misbehaved with, and the group’s car windows were smashed.

“Today, restoration work at that school has started, 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 in a buffalo shed for more than two years,” Ranka told IANS on Wednesday.

He underlined that quality education is every child’s right, irrespective of the state, and said the CJP would continue to press for proper school infrastructure. “All schools across the country should be repaired like this,” he added.

Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Prem Chand Bairwa said the state has launched what he claimed is the first statewide campaign to transform and improve government schools, promising that all buildings found to be in a dilapidated or unsafe condition would be strengthened and restored.

Bairwa clarified that the use of a bulldozer at the Bagru school was not an isolated step. According to him, the government has identified schools with damaged structures across Rajasthan and the Chief Minister has approved the necessary funds to address their poor condition.

The Deputy Chief Minister said authorities had already been mapping schools with infrastructure deficits and making alternative arrangements to ensure classes could continue. “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 told IANS.

He also pushed back against suggestions that the problem of crumbling school buildings had emerged only after the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power, noting that many of the structures were old and had been constructed several years ago.