For radical changes in the education sector, the ‘Swaraj Abhiyan’ would start a ‘Shiksha Swaraj Yatra’ from April 20. Addressing a press conference here on Monday, the convener of Swaraj Abhiyan, Kamla Pant said that the 20 day Yatra would be flagged off from the lansdowne chowk in Dehradun on April 20. The Yatra would cover all the 13 districts of Uttarakhand. She emphasised an urgent need to make education and development as electoral issues so that the political parties are forced to toe the public opinion.
Pant said that people during the Yatra would be asked not to give their votes to all sitting MlAs who failed to utter a single word in state assembly on education. She said that there is an undercurrent against the exploitation of public schools and bad condition of education system in the general public. “People firmly believe that they should not get looted in the name of providing education to their children. Staging a comprehensive public movement has become a social and political requirement. This is what ‘Shiksha Swaraj’ is all about,’’ she said.
The organisers of Yatra said that its aim is to create a mass awareness on the issue of education and put pressure on public representatives so that the directive of Uttar Pradesh high court in which it has propounded that all those who draw any monetary benefit from the government treasury should compulsorily send their wards in the government schools, is implemented in its letter and spirit. The Swaraj Abhiyan is a forum of many social and political organizations to ensure that a radical change in education sector is witnessed with participation of people.