Parents of school children in Hyderabad say their fed up of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s failure to take action against city schools charging exorbitant fees. So, they’ve decided to sing out their frustrations to the CM.
The Hyderabad Schools Parents’ Association (HSPA) released a parody song called Sonu Song on Wednesday. Interestingly, the Sonu Song borrows from the high-profile satirical effort by RJ Malishka against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s apathy towards infrastructure.
Modelled on the same Marathi song that RJ Malishka used, the song written in Hyderabadi Hindi begins: ‘KCR... tumku padai ki fikar ich nahi kya. School fee loot rokhthe ich nahi kya.’ (KCR, don't you care about education? Won't you stop the school fee loot?)
A little later in the song, the parents sing: “Dilli me toh refund bhi ho rahe. Hyderabad mein parents ro rahe.” (In Delhi refunds are happening. In Hyderabad parents are crying).
With the comparison to Delhi, where the AAP successfully forced many private schools to refund exorbitant fees by threatening to take them over otherwise, the song hits out hard at the KCR government.
Association representatives said that they have repeatedly complained to the Chief Minister, Ministers and other respective officials for many years against illegal capitation fees collected by private schools. However, as the CM and the state government failed to act, they have released a parody song.
They added that they didn’t know how else to draw the Chief Minister’s attention and urged opposition leaders and the media to share the 90-second video widely.
They also said that they will continue with many more such videos, until the Chief Minister takes some action against the erring schools.
Speaking to TNM, Ashish Naredi, executive committee member of HSPA, said, “In 2014, we gave a representation to the Deputy Chief Minister, which led to an investigation by the government into 12 schools. We later filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the High Court that led to an investigation into 164 schools. However, as the Chief Justice got transferred, the case has not come to hearing.”
He added that the HSPA had conducted its own investigations and found that the schools’ justifications for high fees were baseless. “We did our own investigation and checked the balance sheets of schools. In the investigation, we found that many schools have been charging exorbitantly claiming that they have to pay salaries to the teachers, while they have been investing in many companies. This is a loot”, he said.