BJP-led MCD selling school land in connivance with builders, alleges AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj

AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj said that the BJP-led MCD is selling land meant to educate the poor to their private partners, issuing tenders for unnecessary projects.

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NEW DELHI: In another one of its ploys to cheat the people of Delhi, the BJP-led MCD is attacking poor children's right to education by stealing primary school land at the Ajmal Khan Market. AAP Chief Spokesperson and MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj informed that the BJP is selling land meant to educate the poor to their private partners, issuing tenders for unnecessary projects.

In the process, the MCD is troubling shopkeepers and driving them away, halting their stalls near a land belonging to a primary school next to Ajmal Khan Market, giving it away for private parking. The Aam Aadmi Party staunchly condemns and opposes the BJP’s cheap trick of selling public property worth thousands of crores under the MCD, said Bhardwaj.

BJP in deep turmoil over upcoming MCD elections: Saurabh Bhardwaj

AAP Chief Spokesperson and MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj said, "For several months now we have been raising this issue, that as the BJP is realising that it is bound to lose the upcoming MCD elections and they are in deep turmoil. The Aam Aadmi Party is all set to come to power in the MCD for the people of Delhi are angry at and fed up with BJP’s consistent misgovernance. And so, all the property under the three BJP ruled MCDs worth thousands of crores is being plotted to be sold. Near Ajmal Khan Market, on Bank Street Road, some 4115 sq. meter of land which belongs to a temporarily shut primary school, is now being sold to a private builder by the MCD to develop private parking in its place."

The AAP leader further alleged, "The tender for this property is in the process of being issued. This land, worth crores, is being sold off to a private company. In the surrounding area, it is said that 48 shopkeepers are given stallages, which the MCD has issued a notice to the shopkeepers of halting. They have issued a notice for these shop owners to give up the area."

AAP condemns BJP’s attack on children’s right to education 

According to Bhardwaj, "We earlier shared the BJP-led MCD’s strategy to gradually decrease attendance in primary schools to eventual mergers of these schools. Following this, these schools are emptied and after showing the land belonging to the school as something not in use, it is then pushed into the process of being sold off to private builders. This is the standard procedure that BJP has been following, which the Aam Aadmi Party staunchly condemns."

"We believe that when it comes to primary education in Delhi especially, there is a shortage of schools. Instead of shutting and merging schools, more branches need to be opened up so that people do not have to face the exorbitant fees of private schools to get basic education for their children. Instead of this, the BJP is shamelessly catalysing shutting of the meagre number of primary schools present and selling them off to private builders, something that there is no actual need of," he added.