Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke on Thursday launched a nationwide public outreach campaign titled ‘Kya Bolti Public’, saying the initiative aims to directly engage with citizens and understand the issues affecting them.
Announcing the campaign, Dipke said education reform would be its first priority, arguing that rising school, college and coaching fees have made quality education increasingly unaffordable for ordinary families.
“Education reform will be our first issue that we are going to take up. We believe education has become unaffordable in the country. Annual fees are in the range of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh for Class 1, over and above the donation money,” he said.
Questioning how middle- and lower-income households are expected to bear such costs, Dipke said many families are struggling to finance their children’s education.
Dipke also claimed that the rising cost of college education and coaching institutes is forcing many parents into debt.
“College fees and coaching fees are also becoming too high, bringing families into the burden of loans. We want to free families from this. The parents should not feel burdened if they want to give higher education to their children,” he said.
Citing Dr B R Ambedkar, Dipke argued that education should remain a fundamental right rather than a commercial enterprise.
“It is a fundamental right, according to Dr BR Ambedkar, but in the last few years, it has turned as education is a fundamental business to gain business,” he said.
