Shiv Sena (UBT) slams govt over delay in supply of school uniforms

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena (UBT) has slammed the Mahayuti government over its failure to provide school uniforms to nearly 50% of the 4.4 million government school students in the state despite the passage of three months since the start of the academic year. The party has also expressed concern over the poor quality of uniforms and accused the Gujarat-linked contractor of indulging in a scam.

The Maharashtra government has for several years been providing uniforms to students of classes 1 to 8 in a bid to help those from economically weak families continue their education. While the uniforms were different for different schools earlier, this year, the government implemented the ‘one state one uniform’ policy with an eye on standardising the uniforms.

As per schedule, the government was to deliver the uniforms by June 15, which was later revised to August 15. But despite the passage of over a month and half since the deadline, only 2.4 million students have received their uniform, while another 2 million are still awaiting them.

There have been numerous complaints about the poor quality of uniforms as well. Alluding to these, leader of opposition in the legislative council Ambadas Danve shared a picture of a shirt with uneven length.

“The uniform of this school boy represents the current situation of governance in Maharashtra,” he said in a post on social media platform X. “There is no symmetry, quality of cloth is bad, and stitching quality is also poor. School education minister Deepak Kesarkar has made fun of school children in the state by distributing such bogus uniforms,” he said.

Danve said the contractor tasked with supplying textile material for the uniforms did not have the capacity to supply so much cloth. They did not have any facility to stitch uniforms either, he said.