Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Shashi Tharoor, who was also present on the occasion, talked about the work done by the government in the field of education, which he claimed was in many ways better than what the NDA had done while in power.
Tharoor said that while not even 55 per cent of schools had drinking water facility under the NDA government, the figure had gone up to 87 per cent now. He added that 92 per cent of schools now had toilets for girls.
Gross enrolment in colleges had also improved beyond what it was in the NDA years, Tharoor said. The UPA government had created 16 new central universities, nine new IITs and seven new IIMs while NDA had set up only one IIT and two IIMs, he said.
When an NSUI activist asked Tharoor why the government did not consider making economic condition the criterion for reservation, Tharoor said all issues could discussed once the elections were over.
