BRS questions rationale behind escalating cost of Young India schools from ₹80-₹200 crore

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has demanded that the State Government explain its policy on the proposed Young India Integrated Schools and the timeline for their establishment, alleging it is neglecting the remaining schools in the name of the proposed ones.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, party legislators P. Sabitha Indra Reddy and S. Vanidevi said over 6,650 students of residential schools secured admission into IITs, NITs, IIMs, IIITs, and medical colleges during the last 10 years and the credit goes to the BRS government. Even Harvard University had taken up a case study on these residential schools following their tremendous success in empowering students from the marginalised sections.

They questioned the rationale in repeatedly increasing the cost of integrated schools starting with ₹80 crore per school to ₹100 crore, ₹125 crore and now ₹200 crore, without even constructing one school so far and without specifying the plans.

Ms. Sabitha Indra Reddy pointed out that the Congress Government had initially stated that it would allocate ₹11,000 crore for integrated schools in the budget but the actual allocation was only ₹4,000 crore.

Meanwhile, former minister T. Harish Rao questioned the government’s intentions for increasing the cost of integrated schools by nearly three times without even taking up the work. He stated that whether it was Jalayagnam or integrated schools, the modus operandi of Congress Governments was the same — to bag commissions by escalating the cost.