Modi’s photo to be hung at all municipal schools in Surat

The proposal, approved by a majority of the elected members of the BJP, saw resistance from lone AAP member Rakesh Hirpara who objected to the “unnecessary” expenditure terming it “baseless and waste of valuable money”. Meanwhile, the order for the photos was placed Tuesday with a private firm.

“I have visited the majority of the municipal schools in the city and found that except that of PM Modi, all the schools have photos of Dr. BR Ambedkar, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Bharat Mata and Sardar Patel, along with photos of Bhagat Singh and Mahatma Gandhi,” Hirpara told The Indian Express. He has also alleged that the plan is also to replace the Tricolour in Bharat Mata’s photo with a saffron-coloured flag.

However, MSB Vice-Chairman, Swatiben Sosa, said there was a need to purchase new photo frames because the existing ones were old and have faded. “Many people visit the principal’s offices. People and students will get inspired by seeing such photos. We have also hired a group of people who will see the right locations for hanging the frames. The fixing of the new frames will commence in the next couple of days,” said Sosa.

In addition, the elected members also approved a proposal to purchase laptops for all members of MSB. A proposal to start one English medium school in each of the eight municipal zones in the city also got majority approval of the board.

However, opposing the proposal, Hirpara, who is also the leader of the opposition of MSB, called attention to the poor infrastructure at many existing schools that requires repairing work.

“The annual budget of MSB is Rs 616 crore. The board lacks funds for several other important works. Currently, MSB has 3,739 teachers and there is a shortage of 1,047 teachers. So, attempts should be made to fill the gap. Apart from this, many schools are such that they need repairing works, no money is spent behind it,” he said.

The civic body’s education board runs 321 municipal schools in Surat across different mediums such as Gujarati (94 schools), Hindi (25), Urdu (28), Marathi (55), Odia (7), Telgu (1) and English (9) with over 1.50 lakh students.