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A winter too far

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI FEB. 7. The Capital might have experienced one of its coldest days in recent years this January, but for officials of the Education Department of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi the winter is yet to arrive.

Nearly 2.5 lakh jerseys are reported to be lying in various godowns of MCD's Education Department across the Capital. At a number of places, they are being eaten up by rats.

The Mayor, Jaishree Panwar, had a personal experience of the sorry state of affairs when she raided an Education Department godown on Chitragupta Road near Ramakrishna Ashram this evening. About 2,500 sweaters were found in the store here. Senior officials had no answer to Ms. Panwar's question as to why these were not distributed this winter. "Will you distribute these in summer'' she asked.

Ms. Panwar raided the godown following a complaint by the Opposition BJP Councillor, Aarti Mehra, in her budget speech in the MCD House today. She gave a list of all such godowns where the jerseys were being dumped including those at Kamla Nagar and Mangolpuri.

Concerned as she has long been about issues related to children, Ms. Panwar decided to visit some of the godowns to verify the allegation. Following the visit, she has ordered an inquiry. "Action would be taken against the officials found guilty. We cannot tolerate such criminal negligence with children coming from poor sections of society. This is sheer wastage and misuse of public money. Officials should remember that this is Congress rule and not the erstwhile BJP regime,'' she said.

In fact, Ms. Panwar these days has been making extra efforts to ensure that the facilities given reached the school students. On Thursday she visited two municipal primary schools and found that mid-day meals had not been distributed to the students for more than a month now.

Taking a serious view of the situation, she then ordered an inquiry. "Such a state of negligence -- that too with poor children -- cannot be tolerated by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi under the Congress rule,'' said the Mayor, who became furious after the children complained to her. She had visited the municipal primary schools in Karol Bagh and New Rajinder Nagar where she inquired from students about the mid-day meal. The school authorities said they were managing to give fruits to the children once a week from the Parent Teacher Association Fund.

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