NEW DELHI: Union Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy on Tuesday assured a delegation of Congress leaders led by the Member of Parliament from Outer Delhi, Sajjan Kumar, and Delhi unit president Ram Babu Sharma that the Centre would soon formulate a policy to safeguard the future of lakhs of children studying in about 1,700 public schools that face sealing in Delhi. He said his Ministry was also making concerted efforts to regularise these schools in the proposed Master Plan for Delhi-2021.

The delegation, comprising MLAs Mukesh Sharma, Jai Kishan and Bijender Singh, also presented a memorandum to Mr. Reddy stating that the public schools being run in the Capital were duly accorded recognition by the Education Department of the Delhi Government under the Education Act 1973 framed by the Union Government.

Stating that these schools had not come up following encroachment of Government land, the delegation said closure of these recognised schools would amount to playing with the future of the students.

Also, the Delhi Congress leaders contended that giving them recognition, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi had also issued them the health and building safety certificates. Further, the Central Board of Secondary Education had also given recognition to these schools in the same way as it approves schools in others parts of the country.

They said the Ministry of Human Resource Development had been providing avenues of education through open schools to students who could not avail of formal schooling but on the other hand lakhs of students were being deprived of education. Also, it was an irony that while on the one hand the government spends crores of rupees on universal education campaigns for launching literacy drivers, on the other hand order have been issued for the closure of schools in unauthorised colonies, resettlement colonies and other parts of the Capital.

Public Schools Mahasangh general secretary Rakesh Sharma said apart from the students, the future of a large number of teachers as well as other school employees was also at stake.

The meeting with the Minister came against the backdrop of the Supreme Court ordering sealing of commercial establishments -- including schools operating out of residential areas -- in the Capital.

However, considering the future of the students, the apex court had allowed these schools to complete the current session.

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