BJP favouring North, says RTI activist

Vijayawada: BJP-led union government is discriminating against southern states in allotment of Kendriya and Navodaya schools, RTI activist Inaganti Ravikumar has underlined.

Providing proof, he pointed out from 2014, when BJP came to power; the centre has till now sanctioned 63 new Navodaya schools. Southern region got only three schools, with all of them going to BJP-ruled Karnataka. All other states in the south, including Andhra Pradesh, have remained empty handed.

Navodaya schools had been started in 1986 to train students in educational, cultural and environmental fields, apart from sports. Ravikumar said there are 661 schools across the country. But BJP-led government is giving priority to only politically prominent northern states. For example, Chhattisgarh has been allotted 11 Navodaya schools, Gujarat 8, Madhya Pradesh 4, Uttar Pradesh 6, Jammu and Kashmir 5 and Delhi 7. Only Karnataka in south got three schools, while Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh got none.

The RTI activist said apart from Navodaya, discrimination is also seen in allotment of kendriya vidyalayas, where mostly children of Army and central government employees study. There are 1,650 of these schools in the country, with 153 of them sanctioned after BJP came to power.

Ravikumar said Hyderabad has large army contingents and central government employees. Similar is the situation in AP. But the BJP-led government at centre has allotted only 10 kendriya vidyalayas to AP and 7 to Telangana, while BJP-dominated Madhya Pradesh has 20 kendriya vidyalayas, Rajasthan 14, Karnataka 13 and Uttar Pradesh 16.

The RTI activist underlined that BJP is clearly being step-motherly towards the south, especially AP.