Noida: Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) ‘school theek karo’ campaign reached UP on Tuesday, but its first audit quickly turned into a confrontation over access.At a govt primary school in Chaukhandi, CJP members found dirty toilets, broken gates and an ageing building. At four other schools the group sought to inspect later in the day, CJP spokesperson Saurav Das alleged that teachers deliberately kept the gates locked following orders from senior govt officials. The education department, however, denied any such order to shut schools and said classes continued as scheduled.Das and other CJP members began the Noida school audit around 10.30am with the primary school in Garhi Chaukhandi in Sector 121. The team was allowed inside and inspected facilities available to students.“The school had very dirty toilets, with broken gates, and old dilapidated buildings. The school building was built in 1968. So many batches have passed. However, the condition of the school has remained very poor,” Das said.The CJP team also highlighted a dilapidated structure on the school premises that villagers said once housed the library. In a video posted by Das on Instagram, the building appeared to have no windows and looked severely weakened, raising concerns over its structural safety. Villagers said the room had earlier been used as the school library but was now in such poor condition that it appeared unsafe for use.He added that around 300 children were enrolled in the school, some of whom were studying in the veranda in the absence of proper classrooms. He also flagged poor sanitation and the absence of a playground, and alleged that three of eight teachers were away on BLO and SIR duties.The team then moved to four nearby govt primary schools in Sarfabad, Barola and Sadarpur. Das alleged that the gates remained locked despite students remaining inside. “We visited the schools between 10.30am and 2.30pm. Students were inside, but the gates were closed from inside. The principals told us there is an order from senior authorities not to allow anyone inside the school premises,” he said.In a social media post later in the day, Das alleged that after the Chaukhandi inspection, UP govt had ordered all schools in Noida to close. He also claimed teachers told him the Noida administration had called them “5 to 6 times” and asked them not to allow the CJP team inside. He questioned why access was being denied to them if there was nothing to hide.District basic education officer Rahul Panwar rejected the allegation. In an official statement, he said CJP’s claim that all govt schools had been ordered to close was “completely false and misleading”. “All council schools in Gautam Budh Nagar district are functioning as per the timetable set by the administration and the department, and no order regarding the closure of any school has been issued,” he said.Panwar told TOI that teachers were actually concerned about the presence of a large crowd around students. He said they refused entry to the CJP team because it could make children uncomfortable or frightened, disrupt classes and cause panic.The Noida visit was part of CJP’s nationwide ‘school theek karo’ campaign, which was launched on Aug 15 as a citizen-led social audit of govt schools. Its first audit, in Santuk Pimpri village in Maharashtra’s Hingoli district, raised concerns about unsafe drinking water, inadequate benches, dirty toilets, broken windows and poor infrastructure.The campaign has since spread across states, producing both administrative action and confrontations. In Haryana, a Bhiwani school in-charge was suspended after a CJP video flagged poor toilets, cracked walls and problems with mid-day meal supplies. In Rajasthan, restrictions were subsequently imposed on outsiders entering govt school campuses after a CJP team faced opposition during an inspection. In Latur in Maharashtra, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and five others faced an FIR over alleged unauthorised entry into a school.
