After text books, UP schools get saffron paint

After giving text books saffron colour,   school buildings seem to be next on the agenda of the  Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh.

According to reports, more than 100 primary school buildings have been painted saffron in the state's Pilibhit district, about 300 km from here.

Reports said that at many places the local villagers opposed the saffron paint for schools and tried to stop it but did not succeed.

District education officials denied any such directive to the schools to get their buildings painted in saffron colour.

''Some school buildings may have been painted in saffron on the suggestion of the village panchayat chief...such buildings will be painted in white if there is opposition,'' said a district education official in Pilibhit.

The move comes within days of the decision to get the cover pages of the text books for classes up to 8th standard painted in saffron from next academic session.  The school bags carried by children of the primary classes in the state are already of saffron colour.

Adityanath, who is always clad in saffron clothes, had recently got the secretariat building annexe painted in saffron. The chief minister had been, since taking charge of the state, trying to give government schemes and projects a saffron tint. He also got the state transport corporation buses painted saffron.

BSP blues

While the Opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress criticised the move, the BJP leaders did not find anything wrong with it. ''Saffron colour cannot ensure progress of the state,'' said SP leader Rajendra Chaudhary.

The BSP government under Mayawati, during its regime, had dyed government buildings and transport buses blue - the colour the party is associated with. Even the state information department diary was printed in blue.