Dy speaker blames edu dept for school tragedy

NEW DELHI: Blaming the "lethargic attitude'' of officials for Delhi's problems, Deputy Speaker of Delhi assembly Amrish Singh Gautam on Thursday blamed the education department's "high-handedness'' for the Khajuri Khas school tragedy.
Gautam said: "Time and again MLAs had told the education department that schools which had girls and boys in different shifts should either be made co-educational or there should be separate entry and exit gates.They never listened to us and that led to such a tragedy.''
He went on to say how a proposal to put RO water purifiers in all Delhi government schools never happened because "officials were not willing to work'' even though the minister had approved the project five years back.
"Time and again we write to the chief minister about works that need to be done. The CM responds, but the official that she assigns the work to sits on the file for ages. They just do not want to work,'' said the Deputy Speaker.
A stampede at a government school in Khajuri Khas earlier this month had left five girls dead and several others injured.