LG 'withholding clearance' on proposal to send government teachers to Finland for training: Delhi Dy CM

NEW DELHI: Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday accused Lt Governor V K Saxena of "withholding clearance" on Delhi government's proposal to send primary teachers of state-run schools to Finland for training. In his letter, Sisodia asked Saxena to immediately approve the training programme.

Sharing the letter on Twitter, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also urged the LG to allow the teachers to attend the training programme. "I urge Hon'ble LG to allow our teachers to go abroad for training. Hon'ble LG had himself said that he is not against it," he said in a tweet. The Delhi government had on January 20 sent the proposal to the Lt Governor's Office to allow the teachers to visit Finland, days after Saxena asked the government to first conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the programme.

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"The file related to sending primary teachers of Delhi government schools to Finland for training has been lying on your table since January 20. "You have neither given your consent to this proposal nor have you started the process of sending it to the Honourable President for taking a decision on it," Sisodia said in the letter. Sisodia alleged that the LG had sent back the file to the government twice on the pretext of seeking clarification.

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"Sir, since October 2022, the file is taking rounds in your office. You sent the file back twice on the pretext of seeking clarification. When the Honourable chief minister along with his ministers and MLAs came to meet you to talk about this, you refused to meet us. That day, the media on your behalf said that you have not refused to send teachers to Finland.

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"I had sent the file to you again. This time I was hoping that you would give your consent on this within 24 hours. But it has been more than 10 days since the file was sent, your approval has not come yet," Sisodia said in the letter. Sisodia said "politics" should not be played on "such sensitive issues'' and urged Saxena to clear the file.

"You unconstitutionally stopped the proposal twice to send teachers to Finland for training. Due to this, a delegation of 30 teachers could not be sent for training in December 2022 and now once again in March 2023, the training of 30 teachers is also on the verge of cancellation. "That's why I request you again to immediately allow the teachers to be sent to Finland for training.

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There should be no politics on such important and sensitive issues," he said. Kejriwal had earlier said Saxena twice returned a file containing the proposal, asking if a cost-benefit analysis of the programme had been done. The Raj Niwas, in a series of tweets, then clarified that the Lt Governor had only advised the Delhi government to evaluate the proposal in totality and assess the effectiveness of such foreign training programmes undertaken in the past. Saxena advised the government to identify similar training programmes in Indian institutions, it had said.