All You Need To Know About: Plots Unused By DDE

NEW DELHI: Delhi government’s Directorate of Education has over 13 unutillised plots across the city cumulatively measuring over 59,000 square metres, where schools can be built. The DDA had allotted the land for building schools, the first time as far back as in 2015. Government schools in Delhi saw the highest enrolment in 2022, with more than 18 lakh students on the rolls in 1,043 schools, an increase of over 30,000 against the previous year. At a time when enrolment in Delhi government schools has been increasing, new buildings have become necessary. Due to the lack of classrooms, many government schools run a double shift, the morning shift mostly for girls and the evening shift for boys. The earliest pieces of land were allotted to DoE in Geeta Colony and Vasant Kunj in 2015. In Geeta Colony, the department got a 4,050sqm plot in July 2015 and three months later, it got the biggest among such allotments in Vasant Kunj with an area of 8,093.7sqm. There currently are three government schools in Geeta Colony in which close to 3,839 students study. Two of the schools have classes from nursery to Class XII. The third has class from VI onward. At Vasant Kunj, there are four schools at present, of which one is a Specialised School of Excellence. When the Aam Aadmi Party came to power in 2015, it had promised to build over 500 schools and 20 new colleges. BJP, in the Opposition, has always alleged that no new schools have been built. However, Delhi government has, over the years, added classrooms to the already existing school. In the first phase, the government created around 20,000 classrooms and then erected another 12,000. AAP designated these new classrooms as the equivalent of constructing 537 new school buildings. Of the other plots allotted by DDA to DoE, one in 2018 at Shahi Idgah, Sadar Bazar, measures around 1,600sqm. There are two schools on Idgah Road at the moment. In March 2021, DoE got an allotment in Rohini Phase V, covering an area of 4,001sqm. The rest of the land lies mostly in different parts of Sector 41 Rohini and at Narela, which were allotted only last year. There are around 35 schools scattered in different sectors of Rohini, though not in Sector 41. At Narela there are close to 10 schools.