New Delhi: Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke on Wednesday called on the Union government to direct unspent reserves from the PM CARES Fund toward overhauling rural educational infrastructure and constructing more than 1,000 high-tech model schools across the country. Highlighting the initiative under the party’s ongoing “School Thik Karo” campaign, Dipke pointed out the stark disparity between idle emergency reserves and the deteriorating condition of public schools in rural regions.
According to the latest audited financial statements for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, the closing balance of the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund expanded to Rs 8,452 crore, up from Rs 7,173 crore in the preceding year. Of the total corpus, approximately Rs 7,846 crore remains held in fixed deposits, generating substantial interest income, while Rs 605 crore sits in savings bank accounts. Despite the large financial pool, total disbursements during the 2024-25 period stood at Rs 87.85 lakh, marking a sharp decline from the Rs 15.6 crore spent in the previous fiscal year.
In a public video statement, Dipke noted that students across rural India continue to endure severe infrastructural deficiencies, including dilapidated classrooms, broken benches, inadequate roads, and a lack of clean drinking water and functional sanitation facilities. He argued that if an estimated Rs 8 crore is allocated to construct a fully equipped, modern model school, the current corpus of approximately Rs 8,500 crore could easily finance over 1,000 new educational institutions nationwide.
Reflecting on his recent visits to government schools in rural Maharashtra, the party convener stated that administrative officials frequently cite budget shortages as the reason for substandard amenities. Urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to prioritize public education, Dipke appealed to citizens to demand that accumulated trust funds be repurposed to address fundamental educational gaps and secure better learning conditions for underprivileged children.
