As elections to the Punjab Assembly near, the Aam aadmi
Party (AAP) has intensified its attack on the Congress government in the state.
The Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party is focussing on two
issues -- education and illegal sand mining -- in its fight against the
Congress.
It all started with Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish
Sisodia's visit to a primary government school in Punjab's Chakalan village
followed by another visit to Makrauna Kalan -- the village of Chief Minister
Charanjit Singh Channi's maternal grandfather in his Chamkaur Sahib Assembly
seat.
There, Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio in
Delhi government, saw the dilapidated condition of the schools and said that if
the Punjab government deems itself to have the best education system then it is
lying and messing up with the future of millions of children and thereby, that
of the country's.
Both he and Punjab Education Minister Pargat Singh got
into a war of words over the issue with the former challenging the latter to
present a list of 250 schools within 24 hours that have undergone major reforms
in terms of good infrastructure, enhanced curriculum, teacher training
programmes and showed improved results under the Congress regime.
"Punjab has the right to know the Congress party's
contribution in the field of education in the state in the last five
years," the AAP leader had said while releasing the list. The Punjab
minister, on the other hand, failed to provide the list, giving the Delhi-based
party an opportunity to attack the government.
Since coming to power in Delhi in 2015, the AAP-led Delhi
government has claimed it has transformed the education system there. The pass
percentage of the 2016 batch of grade 12 CBSE students was 85.9 per cent. In
2017, it improved to 88.2 per cent; it then leapt from 90.6 per cent in 2018 to
94.24 per cent in 2019 to 97.8 per cent in July 2020. In fact, the government
school results in Delhi reported a surge of 5.9 per cent in comparison to the
private schools.
"We achieved such a great result by improving school
infrastructure, focusing on quality learning, investing in teachers by sending
them for training to Cambridge University which opened their eyes to the global
scale of teaching, involving parents in their child's development journey and
introducing curriculum that helped children look within themselves and to
understand the world in a better way via Happiness, Business Blaster and
Deshbhakti Curriculum," Manish Sisodia told media repeatedly.
Earlier on November 27, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal
reached Mohali where he met contractual teachers, who were protesting for the
regularisation of their services and said, "When AAP forms government in
Punjab, like Delhi, all the issues of the teachers here will also be
resolved," further alleging that both Akali Dal and Congress had 10 and
eight years in government respectively, but neither did anything for the
teachers.
The AAP national convener made eight promises to the
teachers guaranteeing them of changing the future of Punjab with good governance.
He promised them that once in power all outsourcing and contractual teachers
would be made permanent. He told them if the Channi government does not accept
the demands of the striking teachers, then he (Kejriwal) will join them in
their dharna. Kejriwal also promised them that a transparent transfer policy in
Punjab will be implemented and non-teaching work burden will be taken off the
teachers' shoulders, all vacancies will be filled, teachers will be sent abroad
for training, promotion policy will be introduced and cashless medical
facilities to teachers and their families will be provided.
On December 4, AAP MLA Raghav Chadha, who is also the
party Punjab Co-in-charge, alleged that illegal sand mining was being carried
out in Chamkaur Sahib, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi's
constituency under the former's patronage.
He tweeted along with a live video of sand being mined
illegally, "Illegal sand mining in Charanjit Singh Channi's constituency
has been exposed. It is the biggest expose which will shake Punjab's
politics."
"We are in Jindapur village, which is in the chief
minister's constituency Chamkaur Sahib. Illegal sand mining is going on here
openly. Sand is being illegally carried in trucks," it added.
Chadha also wrote a letter to the forest officer on
November 22. "Forest Range officer Rajwant Singh had informed Sub
divisional Magistrate, Sri Chamkaur Sahib - about the illegal mining activities
in CM Charanjit Channi's constituency. There was no action on the sand mafia,
but Rajwant Singh soon received transfer orders," he tweeted.
Chadha on Friday said that the AAP will reward Rs 25,000
to the Punjab Chief Minister if he acts against every site where illegal sand
mining is being done as he has complete information about the whereabouts of
illegal mining in his state.
In response, Charanjit Singh Channi attacked Arvind
Kejriwal by calling him a "power greedy outsider", who wants to rule
the state and accused him of misleading the people of Punjab. "AAP supremo
has little knowledge about the state and he was groping in the dark for
fulfilling his lust of power," he added.
Channi had also retweeted a blurred letter in Gurumukhi
on his Twitter account saying that AAP can spread as many lies as it wants, but
people of Punjab know the truth.
Illegal sand mining has become a major political issue in
Punjab along with the problem of liquor, and in view of this the Congress
government recently introduced "Mission Clean".
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Earlier this year, a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader too
had captured the act of illegal sand mining in a Facebook live post that showed
trucks loading sand at the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant. The opposition party
had blamed Congress leader and State Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and
his brother-in-law Jaijeet Singh Johal of being involved in illegal sand
mining.