In an awkward situation for the Gujarat government, a government led school distributed about 12000 school bags with an image of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and a tagline of ‘Khoob Padhao, Khoob badhao’.
The incident was reported from tribal village Sankheda where an enrolment drive ‘Shala Pravesh Utsav’ was going on. The bags distributed by Zila Panchayat officials of Chotta Udepur carried a sticker with a logo of the panchayat.
As per reports, the bags were supplied by a firm in Surat called Chotala.
“We had supplied the Surat firm with Gujarat’s education department stickers to be stuck on the bags. But we found images of Akhilesh Yadav and the UP government slogan beneath them. Just five per cent of the 12,000 bags carry Akhilesh Yadav pictures,” claims a senior the education department official. The official also claimed that the Surat firm may have been supplying similar bags to UP government earlier.
Commenting on the incident, Samajwadi Party MLC and Akhilesh Yadav’s close aide, Sunil Singh Sajan said, “This is a matter of shame for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his government and also for Gujarat government. How can schools bags with Akhilesh Yadav’s image be distributed in Gujarat? It can only be done by stealing the school bags meant for UP schools. Adityanath is a blot in the name of a saint. The UP government should clarify how these bags reached Gujarat.”
Chotta Udepur District primary education officer (DPO), Mahesh Prajapati says, “We have ordered an inquiry into the incident. The bags were bought at the rate of Rs 124 per piece from the Zilla panchayat funds through the e-tendering process.”
