NEW DELHI / UTTAR PRADESH | Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP and Uttar Pradesh Prabhari Sanjay Singh highlighted what a unique feat of the Yogi government, with five government primary schools having ‘gone missing’ in Jaunpur. He said Primary Schools Dhalger Tola, Misirpur, Gagan Arjani, Urdu Bazaar and Bagh Hasan had no school buildings, students or teachers to be found on the ground, yet continued to be shown as operational in government records. He challenged the Uttar Pradesh government and BJP leaders to find even one of the five schools, offering a reward of ₹1 lakh.
AAP Rajya Sabha MP and Uttar Pradesh Prabhari Sanjay Singh said, “Today, I am bringing to light an extraordinary and unique case involving the Yogi government. Until now, we had been showing schools where the building existed but the premises were filled with garbage, and where the kitchens and toilets were in poor condition. These schools were shown as operational on paper but were not actually functioning on the ground. But in Jaunpur district, the government school itself has disappeared.”
Sanjay Singh noted that the UP government’s U-DISE (Unified District Information System for Education) portal shows the schools as operational and the double-engine government claims that they are functioning. However, he added, “Here, there is no trace of the building itself. The AAP challenges the Yogi government and BJP leaders to find even one of these five schools.”
He added, “I will give ₹1 lakh to whoever finds one. The five primary schools in Jaunpur are Primary School Dhalger Tola, Primary School Misirpur, Kanya Composite School Gagan Arjani, Primary School Urdu Bazaar and Primary School Bagh Hasan.”
Sanjay Singh said a letter from the City Education Officer stated that there was no trace of any of these five schools. He said the schools had been operating from rented buildings, which had now been handed back to the building owners. “Despite this, Misirpur Primary School, Kanya Composite School Gagan Arjani, Bagh Hasan School, Dhalger Tola School and Urdu Bazaar School continue to be shown as operational on the Uttar Pradesh government’s online U-DISE portal,” he highlighted.
“According to U-DISE, these schools are functioning, but in reality, there is no trace of the schools, the children or the teachers. After cases of donation theft, offering theft, land theft and sugar theft, we now have the case of school theft. There will be no other example anywhere in the country where an entire school has simply disappeared,” he added.
The AAP MLA said the Chief Minister, Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) and other officials were saying that they would file FIRs. “When a school is being stolen, the FIR should be against the thieves who stole the school and the corrupt officials, not against those making videos. I demand that the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister file FIRs against the Block Education Officers and BSAs in cases involving such dilapidated schools in rural areas. Wherever District Magistrates (DMs) are involved, FIRs should also be filed against the DMs,” he stated.
Giving two examples, Sanjay Singh said AAP Youth Wing state president Pankaj Singh had travelled to Noida and made a video showing the dilapidated condition of a school, but instead of repairing the school, an FIR was filed against Pankaj Singh. Similarly, when AAP worker Firoz Siddiqui made a video showing dilapidated schools and roads in Hardoi, the Hardoi DM had a case registered against him.
He continued, “Instead of filing FIRs against those eating up mid-day meal funds and committing scams in construction work, the government is filing FIRs against those exposing the truth. I want to clearly tell the Uttar Pradesh government that this dictatorship will not work. Action should be taken against those who have created this condition of schools and mid-day meals and those who have stolen schools.”
The senior AAP leader further asserted, “I will personally submit applications seeking registration of cases in three districts, including Jaunpur, and if FIRs are not registered against the responsible persons, I will approach the court under Section 156(3) and seek registration of FIRs against the guilty officials.”
Sanjay Singh asserted that the Yogi government could not carry out one-sided action by threatening people with FIRs. “FIRs will have to be registered against those who have ruined the schools. The children of officials and political leaders do not study there. It is the children of poor and rural families who study in these schools, which is why they do not care and have allowed the schools to be ruined,” he said.
He added that the process of making videos and showing them to the media would continue. Sanjay Singh then showed videos from three more regions and explained what the reality of the Chief Minister’s Operation Kayakalp was and how poor the condition of Uttar Pradesh’s primary schools remained.
Sanjay Singh further noted that the AAP was running the ‘School Theek Karo’ campaign across Uttar Pradesh. “Now the BJP government will either have to fix the schools in Uttar Pradesh or the people will fix them. We are not making any very big demands. If the BJP government can spend thousands and lakhs of crores of rupees for capitalists, it should also spend some money for the poor children of Uttar Pradesh and repair these schools,” he said.
Sanjay Singh emphasised that this programme of highlighting the poor condition of schools will continue. “The five schools in Jaunpur that I mentioned have no trace at all. There is no information about the children or the teachers either. If anyone can find these schools, I have announced a reward of ₹1 lakh from my own side,” he concluded.
