BJP Slams AAP, Abhijeet Dipke Over PM CARES Fund School Remark

The Bharatiya Janata Party hit back at Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke on Wednesday over his appeal to utilise PM CARES funds for repairing rural schools. The controversy began after Dipke released a video demanding the diversion of the emergency corpus to upgrade educational infrastructure. The BJP Goa unit took a swipe at Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal in response. The party labelled the CJP as Kejriwal's "pet project" and accused the Delhi chief minister of failing to teach Dipke basic facts.

BJP Slams School Theatrics

The state BJP unit took to social media to defend the nature of the national relief corpus. The party directed its criticism squarely at the AAP leadership. "PM CARES funds are meant for emergency and disaster relief. Mr. @ArvindKejriwal, you taught your men good theatrics, but not basic facts. That’s not surprising," the Goa BJP stated on X.

The political exchange escalated as the BJP challenged Dipke to assess educational infrastructure in Punjab. The ruling party questioned the AAP's governance record in the northern state. "Anyway, when are you going to take him to Punjab? Let him inspect your “world-class schools” that the people of Punjab are fed up with," the BJP unit stated on X.

Dipke Highlights Unused Funds

Dipke based his appeal on recent financial disclosures regarding the emergency reserve. Monday's audited financial documents revealed a 17.8% increase in the emergency reserve, growing from ₹ 7,173.03 crore during the 2023-24 cycle to ₹ 8,452.07 crore for 2024-25.

"A report came out that there is almost ₹ 8,500 crore in the PM CARES Fund, which is not being used anywhere. It's not being used at all," Dipke said in his video address.

His statements align with his ongoing 'School thik karo' campaign. This initiative involves visiting rural government schools to assess basic facilities.

"They are struggling to get drinking water in schools. So why are we not using this money for those children's schools? Why is this money not being used to build new schools?" Dipke said.

He highlighted the apparent contradiction in resource allocation. "So on one hand, it is being said that there are no funds for schools, and on the other hand, ₹ 8,500 crore is lying in the PM CARES Fund," Dipke added.