Akhilesh Yadav Announces Teachers’ Day Programmes At 26,000 Closed UP Schools

Akhilesh Yadav says SP workers will organise Teachers’ Day programmes at 26,000 UP schools he claims have been closed since 2017.

Akhilesh Yadav says SP workers will organise Teachers’ Day programmes at 26,000 UP schools he claims have been closed since 2017

Source : ANI

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav has announced that his party will organise programmes at around 26,000 schools in Uttar Pradesh that he claimed have been closed since 2017. The programmes are planned for Teachers’ Day, with party workers expected to visit schools across the state. 

Yadav made the announcement on Wednesday after attending an event in Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar. He said details of the programme would be released soon and alleged that the closure of schools has disproportionately affected people from Dalit, minority and backward communities. 

“Our party workers will reach all the closed schools. We will release the programme tomorrow,” Yadav told reporters. 

Akhilesh Yadav Questions School Infrastructure in UP 

Yadav also criticised the state government over the availability of teachers and facilities in schools. He alleged that merely opening schools does not address the educational needs of children if institutions do not have enough teachers or basic infrastructure. 

“You have opened schools for children, but there are no teachers and no facilities. What do you expect? How will their future be built?” he said. 

The SP chief said education should remain a priority for the state and argued that Uttar Pradesh also needs to prepare students for emerging technologies. He specifically referred to artificial intelligence and the growing role of new technology in education. 

SP Chief Says Students Are Speaking Up Over Issues 

Commenting on recent student protests in Uttar Pradesh, Yadav said young people are increasingly willing to raise their voices when they believe something is wrong. 

“There is no hesitation in the new generation. If something is wrong, they call it wrong,” he said. 

He linked this attitude to socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia’s view that wrongdoing must be identified openly if society is to eliminate it. Yadav said young people want better development opportunities and improvements in their lives as well as in society. 

Akhilesh Yadav Talks About Political Alliances 

Yadav also addressed questions about political alliances, including his recent remarks about the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and its past association with the Samajwadi Party. 

"Alliances are formed in politics; alliances do not happen. Alliances break and new alliances are formed. Everyone knows the gains and losses from the alliances that were formed. Nothing is hidden from anyone," he said. 

On political representation, Yadav called for greater participation of backward communities. He said such representation should rise irrespective of whether members of these communities are represented through the SP or other political parties. 

"We want the participation of backward families to increase," he said. 

Yadav Targets BJP Over NDA Seat Sharing 

The SP president claimed that several NDA allies were seeking a larger share of seats and argued that the BJP's electoral position depended significantly on its alliance partners. 

"Remove their allies and you will not even know where the BJP stands. Today, the BJP is because of these parties," he said. 

Yadav also suggested that the RLD should receive twice the number of seats it had secured from the SP in the previous election. He made a similar suggestion for the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP), referring to it indirectly as "the one in yellow shirts". 

"All the parties, whether they have been with us or not, want to congratulate them and extend our best wishes to them. We want the BJP to give them as many seats as possible," he said. 

SP Chief Reiterates Demand for Caste Census 

Yadav once again pressed for a caste census and said communities should receive representation in proportion to their population. 

"If you want a caste census, do not expect it from the BJP. Expecting a caste census from the BJP is like looking for Dussehri mangoes on a babul tree," he said. 

He also criticised the state government over infrastructure and road projects, questioning the quality of construction work. Referring to the Gorakhpur Link Road project, which he said was built at a cost of around Rs 7,000 crore, Yadav called for an investigation to see if the project is found to have failed to meet required quality standards. 

Yadav further questioned the credibility of the SIT inquiry into the Ram temple donation "theft". 

"If I get an inquiry conducted through someone from my own (party) executive, I am hardly going to give myself a bad report," he said.

(With PTI Inputs)