AAP, BJP spar over ‘fee hike’ in Delhi private schools

New Delhi: Raking up the issue of a purported fee hike by certain private schools in the capital, AAP on Tuesday alleged a direct link between the BJP and the umbrella body of management committees of such schools.
Delhi AAP president Saurabh Bharadwaj accused the BJP of being against the interests of the poor and the middle class people and claimed that several prominent private schools in Delhi significantly increased their fees since April 1.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva slammed AAP, saying the party was "disgruntled" due to its defeat in the assembly polls in Feb.
"After losing power in Delhi due to huge corruption in education, power, water, and health sectors, AAP leaders are now trying to create a perception that all is not well in the new BJP regime," Sachdeva said.
Addressing a press conference, Bharadwaj alleged that an office bearer of the association of management committees of unaided private schools was an office bearer of the BJP's teachers' cell who actively campaigned for the party in the assembly polls. He also claimed that the association even went to courts for fee hikes when AAP was in office in the capital. Bharadwaj demanded that the Delhi govt should immediately roll back the fee hike.
"If the govt fails to act, it would clearly indicate that it is complicit," he said.
Sachdeva, however, said Delhi education minister Ashish Sood already directed the sub-divisional magistrates to conduct an audit of 1,665 private schools and asserted that the AAP leaders were creating a "false perception".
"AAP functionaries like Arvind Kejriwal, Saurabh Bharadwaj, and Atishi, among others, are disgruntled and unable to accept that people of Delhi have rejected their govt," Sachdeva said.
A senior Delhi govt official said a number of teams, headed by the SDMs, inspected several city schools on Tuesday and checked their records. Besides the fee hike, govt teams also looked into the complaints of students from the economically weaker section being denied admission and uniform, books, and stationery sold by schools at inflated rates.
Earlier, leader of opposition Atishi also alleged that many schools significantly increased their tuition fees. Former education minister Manish Sisodia also accused the BJP govt of being hand in glove with private schools and claimed that they raised the fees by 20 to 82 per cent.