Collector visits school featured in govt ad, assures facilities in 2 days
HT highlighted the lack of facilities at the school contradicting a full-page government advertisement published in the newspapers of Rajasthan on August 30, which was found to be peddling false information.
Bharatpur district collector Sandesh Nayak on Wednesday visited the Government Upper Primary School at Nagla Dharsoni village and promised to provide “all facilities” at the school “within two days”.
“I visited the school after reading its news in Hindustan Times, where no facilities were found. All facilities such as furniture, water will be provided within two days in school,” said Nayak.
His visit to the school comes after HT highlighted the lack of facilities at the school contradicting a full-page government advertisement published in the newspapers of Rajasthan on August 30, which was found to be peddling false information.
“Ab bahut badal gaya hamara school (our school has changed a lot now),” said a caption used with the photograph of a Class 7 student of Bharatpur in the advertisement.
The advertisement also boasted of adequate infrastructure at the school such as provision of furniture, drinking water, milk, playing ground and teachers. More students came to the school due to the improved infrastructure, the advertisement claimed.
HT had found that the students of Government Upper Primary School Nagla Dharsoni would sit on the floor, bring water from home, as the only hand pump in school was defunct for a year, and there were only three teachers for 108 students.
The student whose photo was used with the advertisement said that he was taken to Jaipur on August 29 with his school principal and was photographed. “I never spoke anything about my school,” he had said. “No one asked me anything about my school. They just asked me to smile,” the boy had said.
Besides visiting the Nagla Dharsoni school, the district collector also met Manju Devi at Rupwas Panchayat Samiti and enquired from her about the lack of government benefits. She has been demanding assistance to build a house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna.