BJP set to play up fee-hike issue

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to make fee hike in unaided schools in the Capital one of its main poll planks.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to make fee hike in unaided schools in the Capital one of its main poll planks.

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While individual BJP leaders like the party's candidate from Chandni Chowk, Vijender Gupta has been in the forefront of the fee hike agitation, now senior party leaders too have lent voice to the cause.

On Wednesday, the leader of the opposition in Delhi Assembly, VK Malhotra, state president OP Kohli and all the seven party candidates are going to the Secretariat to submit a memorandum to chief minister Sheila Dikshit on the fee hike issue.

"It seems the Congress is determined to make education a commodity. We want an answer from the Sheila Dikshit government," said Malhotra.

Chandni Chowk candidate Vijender Gupta said, "How can the Congress turn a blind eye to the problem when thousands of parents across the city are demonstrating every day to protest the fee hike?”

However, Congress candidates called it a “non-issue.” Sitting MP and party's candidate from New Delhi Ajay Maken said, “Till the Parents Teacher Association of a school agrees on it, there’d be no fee hike so there’s no issue.”

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Vijay Goel, BJP's candidate from New Delhi slammed Maken for misleading Delhiites in the name of Master Plan. “The Urban Development Ministry passed the Master Plan in a haste to get votes. But its the provisions have been challenged by the apex court, said Goel.