TDP supremo and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday demanded the Jagan Mohan Reddy Government to withdraw the proposed merger of municipal schools with the State education department.

Naidu strongly criticised the Government for hatching a ‘conspiracy’ to take over the prime properties of over 2,115 municipal schools in cities and towns across Andhra Pradesh.

The TDP chief asked where was the need for merger when the municipal schools were achieving good results. Moreover, these schools have been catering to the educational needs of students of poorer sections for over 160 years.

Naidu said that the YSRCP Government was not learning any lessons from the past setback when the management of aided schools successfully fought a legal battle against a similar merger plan. At that time, the Government made nefarious plans to forcibly take over and occupy properties of aided institutions.

Chandrababu Naidu said that the respective municipal bodies were paying salaries to the non-teaching staff in their municipal schools. Who would pay their salaries if these schools were merged with the education department? The municipal bodies were also paying electricity bills for their schools.

Decrying the attitude of the YSRCP rulers, Naidu said the municipal teachers were already raising their protesting voices, saying that the merger was against the joint services of the High Court. The Government’s ulterior merger plan would destroy the future of over 4.5 lakh poor children studying in municipal schools all over the State.

The TDP chief pointed out that the municipal schools were imparting good education and showing impressive results. There were also admissions from private schools into municipal schools. At some municipal schools, they were putting up ‘no admission’ boards due to lack of seats.