The Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) ‘School Thik Karo’ (fix the schools) campaign faced another confrontation on Tuesday, when locals in Greater Noida prevented CJP co-convenor Saurav Das and his team from entering a government school and questioned the purpose of their visit. Das later alleged that some schools had been locked to keep CJP members from entering.
Later, Das shared a photograph of a vehicle without a registration plate and alleged that the Uttar Pradesh government was “following them”.
The incident occurred days after an earlier CJP school audit in Gautam Buddha Nagar led to a dispute with district education officials over access to government schools. Das has now claimed that schools were locked before the team arrived and questioned why the Uttar Pradesh government was “restricting” their visits.
“In Greater Noida today. This is the second temple of knowledge that was locked in anticipation of our visit. Schools are also called temples of education. But today, the UP government has locked all the temples in Greater Noida. Why is the UP government so afraid?” Das said in a post on X.
Videos from the incident showed locals confronting the CJP team during its visit. However, the circumstances that led to the confrontation and the identities or affiliations of those involved remain disputed.
In one video, locals can be heard objecting to the CJP’s inspection of government schools in the area. One person told Das that the residents lived there and believed the schools were functioning properly, adding that those raising complaints could have vested interests or may have received money.
The latest incident is another development in the CJP’s increasingly prominent campaign to inspect government schools across different states and document their conditions.
Earlier in August, CJP co-convenor Ashutosh Ranka and other members of the organisation were attacked in Jaipur district while attempting to visit a government school in Rampura Kanwarpura village.
WHY IS THE UP GOVERNMENT SO AFRAID? CJP QUESTIONS
Das said the CJP team had travelled to Greater Noida to inspect government schools as part of its nationwide ‘School Thik Karo’ campaign, which was launched on August 15.
In another post, Das said the team was travelling to a government primary school in Devla village when they discovered that the school was locked.
“Even though the school was locked before we arrived, we met a few students who row their boat everyday (sic) in this Venice city,” Das wrote, referring to waterlogging that the CJP says affects students in the locality.
He also referred to the political backdrop of the area, claiming that BJP MP Mahesh Sharma had “adopted a nearby village” and was “asking followers to listen” to students and residents.
The CJP also alleged that its members were being followed.
“Why is the UP government sending god-knows-who in these numberplate-less cars to tail us?” Das wrote, sharing a photograph of a black vehicle.
These allegations come amid an earlier disagreement between the CJP and education officials in Gautam Buddh Nagar.
CJP TEAM WAS EARLIER STOPPED FROM ENTERING SCHOOL IN NOIDA
On September 15, the CJP team visited a government primary school in Garhi Chaukhandi as part of its Noida audit. The members recorded the condition of the school, including its toilets. Das later alleged that the team was denied access to four additional schools it had intended to inspect.
He subsequently claimed that government schools in Gautam Buddha Nagar had been ordered to shut following the CJP’s inspection.
The district education department denied the allegation.
Gautam Buddha Nagar District Basic Education Officer Rahul Panwar said government primary and upper-primary schools were operating according to the prescribed schedule and that no order had been issued to close them. The department termed the claim regarding school closures false and misleading.
CJP’S NATIONWIDE SCHOOL CAMPAIGN AND CONTROVERSIES
The Greater Noida confrontation took place a day after the CJP expanded its campaign to Odisha, continuing an outreach effort that has increasingly shifted from street demonstrations to school inspections.
In Odisha, Das visited government schools and supported students protesting alleged mistakes in state government textbooks. The CJP also called for the resignation of Odisha School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond, arguing that responsibility should be fixed for the textbook errors.
The campaign began after the CJP ended its extended protest at Jantar Mantar following the resignation of BJP MP Dharmendra Pradhan as Union Education Minister. Since August 15, the organisation has sought to make school infrastructure and education quality a major focus of its campaign.
In Punjab, a CJP team conducted a social audit of a school, pointing out both positive features and minor shortcomings before approaching the state education minister. In Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, the organisation’s activities have more prominently included protests, demands and political pressure.
FROM JANTAR MANTAR TO GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS
The school campaign represents a new stage for the CJP, which initially emerged as a satirical social media group before becoming a pressure organisation during its Jantar Mantar protests in New Delhi.
Its earlier campaign focused on grievances within the education system and the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak. Following Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, the CJP shifted its attention to government schools and began taking up student protests and education-related issues in different states.
The organisation has since carried out activities in both BJP-ruled states and states governed by opposition parties. Its wider presence has also prompted questions over whether its interventions vary according to the political party governing a particular state.
Supporters of the CJP describe its school audits as citizen-led monitoring of public education. Critics, however, have raised questions about the organisation’s methods, particularly its attempts to enter operational government schools and film conditions on school premises.
In Greater Noida, the issue has now progressed from a dispute over access to schools to a confrontation involving the CJP team and local residents. For the organisation, the allegations of locked schools and Tuesday’s clash have become another episode in its broader ‘School Thik Karo’ campaign.
