'Please show me the school, if it is newly built': AAP Amritsar MLA embarrasses own govt over Punjab's first School of Eminence

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, September 14

Former Punjab minister Inderbir Singh Nijjar on Thursday posted a tweet about the School of Eminence, to which former IPS officer and Amritsar MLA Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh responded, saying, “Please show me the school, if it is newly built.”

The former cop later deleted his comment on the post.

“This school was made smart school earlier, by the previous governments. I have been to this school a number of times. This school has only been renovated,” he said.

Kunwar Vijay Pratap said veteran leader Satpal Dang had been instrumental in the transformation of the school. He said he had recently visited the school, and the results of this school are always good.

“We had promised people that we will build new schools. Kindly throw some light on this,” he said.

The fact that this criticism of his own party’s government by the sulking MLA from Amritsar North comes on the day when both Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Aam Aadmi Party national convenor are in Amritsar and are due to hold an Industry meet there on Thursday, has created a flutter in the power circles.

Ever since the AAP government has taken over the reins of the state, Kunwar Vijay Pratap has remained critical of the government on various issues – most pertinently on the issue of “slow progress” and direction of probe into the sacrilege cases of 2015.

Earlier this year, the MLA had also resigned from the Vidhan Sabha Committee on Government Assurances, which was formed to review investigation into sacrilege cases.

The former IPS officer, while he was in service, was part of an SIT to probe the Kotkapura firing case of 2015.

On Wednesday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said he would inaugurate Punjab’s first School of Eminence as part of his three-day visit to the state.

In a tweet in Hindi, Kejriwal said he would inaugurate the school in Amritsar jointly with his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann later in the day.

“Now the poor people of Punjab will also start getting good education. We should participate in providing good education to a poor child – there is no greater virtuous work than this, there is no greater task of nation-building than this.

“I am very excited to see that school today. Now one by one, all the schools of Punjab will be made excellent,” he added.