Additional Rooms In Delhi Schools To Be Ready By April: Manish Sisodia

It was on January 28, 2019, when Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia had laid the foundation for these new rooms — under the biggest expansion phase of government school infrastructure.

After missing its December deadline, over 12,000 rooms in Delhi schools will be ready by April as the new AAP government takes charge. It was on January 28, 2019, when Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia had laid the foundation for these new rooms — under the biggest expansion phase of government school infrastructure.

Although it will take four months extra, the classrooms would be ready, keeping in line with the Arvind Kejriwal government’s plans to continue what they had started in their last term.

Speaking to IANS, Mr Sisodia said the new rooms, including the classrooms, will be made open for students in the coming academic session from April 1.

Mr Sisodia, who is again the Delhi Education Minister, told IANS that the construction got delayed as there was Model Code of Conduct for the Lok Sabha between March and May 2019, while the apex court had banned all construction in Delhi since October 2019 due to severe air pollution.

“I was monitoring the construction on an everyday basis. However, the MCC was imposed for the Lok Sabha polls and that affected the construction. Also, with the onset of winter, the city witnessed severe pollution because of which the Graded Response Action Plan was imposed in Delhi. All constructions were banned in the city when the GRAP was imposed,” Mr Sisodia said.

The Education Minister said the two reasons were responsible for the delay in the construction, adding “the new classrooms will be ready by the new academic session”.

In July 2018, the Delhi cabinet approved the proposal of building 12,478 new rooms in the schools. Of these rooms, 9,981 were to be the classrooms, 106 multi-purpose halls, 328 laboratories, and others including Library, Principal and Vice-Principal Room and Staff-rooms in the existing premises of Delhi government schools under the jurisdiction of Directorate of Education.