Gorakhpur: Samajwadi Party and education are two banks of a river which can never meet, and a party opposed to education can never be a well-wisher of teachers.“SP’s politics is confined to family interests and wealthy individuals. It failed to address the concerns of teachers when it was in power,” the CM said while addressing a Shikshak Matdata Samvad programme at Mahant Digvijaynath Park in Gorakhpur, in support of BJP candidate Dhruv Kumar Tripathi for Gorakhpur-Faizabad teachers’ constituency in the MLC election.“Teachers, students and educational institutions faced insecurity, poor infrastructure and rampant copying during previous SP govts. There was a time when teachers had to carry guns to schools for their safety,” he said, recounting an incident of 2004 when he encountered a woman teacher cycling to school with a gun slung over her shoulder.Yogi claimed that the BJP govt improved educational infrastructure, strengthened security and addressed long-pending demands of teachers.He said teachers and education personnel, from the basic to university levels, had been provided cashless medical treatment of up to Rs 5 lakh.Targeting the SP’s PDA slogan, Yogi described it as “Parivar Development Authority” and “Paraya Dhan Apna”, alleging that the party’s politics benefited family members and wealthy individuals rather than wider sections of society.Referring to Rajya Sabha elections, he claimed that the party’s candidate choices reflected this approach.He accused SP of changing its position frequently and making promises despite knowing that they were unlikely to return to power.Comparing the party’s assurances on peace and security to a crocodile claiming it had stopped hunting, he said people should not trust the SP.The CM also accused the party of spreading misinformation in Ayodhya despite opposing the Ram temple movement in the past. He said those who ordered firing on Ram’s devotees were invoking Lord Ram’s name.Yogi alleged that the SP govt failed to implement the New Pension Scheme properly after it was introduced in Uttar Pradesh in 2005 under Mulayam Singh Yadav. He claimed that employee accounts had not been opened and contributions had not been deposited during the SP regime.Yogi said his govt constituted a committee in 2018 and allocated Rs 10,000 crore in early 2019, enabling pension accounts to be opened for 14 lakh govt employees. He accused the previous govt of committing irregularities in recruitment and said that more than 1.5 lakh teaching posts were vacant when the BJP formed govt in 2017.Yogi added that the BJP govt increased the honorarium of shiksha mitras from Rs 10,000 to Rs 18,000 and that of instructors from Rs 9,000 to Rs 17,000.He said the govt upgraded schools under Operation Kayakalp and Project Alankar. Funds were provided to 2,300 govt and aided secondary schools to improve buildings and provide basic facilities, smart classrooms, computer laboratories and digital libraries.He appealed to teachers to elect Tripathi and described him as a successor to veteran secondary teachers’ union leaders Om Prakash Sharma and Panchanan Rai. Yogi said that a holiday had been declared for voters associated with secondary education on polling day on Oct 23.
