On the eve of Marathi language day, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday opposed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) decision to rename the municipal schools as Mumbai Public Schools.
The BMC in its annual budget this year announced that along with affiliating the schools with ISC and CBSE boards, the names of the schools will also be changed. Most of the municipal schools are named after prominent personalities of Maharashtra and the BJP has alleged this to be an attack on the culture of the state.
"The new National Education Policy (NEP) gives priority to native language of the students, while on the contrary the civic administration has decided to rename the schools into Mumbai Public Schools, which is in English," said Bhalchandra Shirsat, senior corporator and spokesperson of the party in BMC.
Furthermore, leaders of the party blamed the ruling Shiv Sena for staying silent in the matter.
"For more than five decades, Shiv Sena has done politics on the grounds of Marathi sentiments, but ironically they have not said a thing on this matter, despite being the ruling party in the BMC," Shirsat added.
Meanwhile, during the improvements committee meeting on Thursday BJP corporators staged a walkout protesting the civic administration's decision of not waiving off property tax in properties smaller than 500 square feet.
Vinod Mishra, senior BJP corporator and group leader of the party slammed the ruling Sena which had proposed property tax waiver during the last municipal elections. Following which leaders of BJP were not given any chance to speak on the matter.
As a result, members of BJP walked out of the meeting as a sign of protest.
