HINGOLI: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke on Wednesday called for the PM CARES Fund to be used to improve infrastructure in rural schools, questioning how many government schools could have been upgraded with the Rs 8,452 crore collected under the fund.“Use PM CARES Fund for schools! Imagine how many rural schools could have been improved with Rs 8,452 crore of PM CARES,” Dipke said.His remarks came a day after he urged the Maharashtra government to make it compulsory for education department officials to send their children to government schools, while criticising the lack of transport facilities for students in rural areas.Dipke also called on ministers and politicians to send their children to village schools for at least a day to understand the difficulties faced by rural students, who are often forced to walk several kilometres to attend school.The CJP founder last week launched the ‘School Thik Karo’ (Improve Schools) campaign, aimed at highlighting infrastructure and other problems in government schools.Speaking to reporters at Limbala in his native Hingoli district on Tuesday, Dipke was also asked whether he planned to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Hingoli. He did not give a direct answer, saying only that he would have no objection to contesting elections if government schools were improved.Earlier, Dipke had posted a video showing the headmaster of a Zilla Parishad school in the village allegedly drinking alcohol and sleeping inside a classroom.Authorities suspended the teacher on Tuesday. However, Dipke said the teacher would not leave the village until a replacement was appointed.“This school requires four teachers. They have only two, so two more should be provided. I am also going to visit four to five other schools in the coming days,” he told news agency PTI.Villagers had demanded two years ago that the headmaster be removed, but education department officials took no action, Dipke claimed.“Action should also be taken against these officials….If the daughter of an education officer sees a teacher drinking country liquor and sleeping in front of her, will these officials tolerate it?” he asked.“It is their job to run government schools in a proper way, seeing that teachers are available. Their kids study in private schools, and they are not doing their duty….It should be made mandatory for the children of these officials to study in government schools,” the CJP leader said.This would bring about a drastic improvement in government schools, he said.”People are (now) asking questions because they are concerned about education and jobs for their children. They have risen above the politics of caste and religion,” Dipke said, adding that people would not vote for them if political leaders failed to improve government schools.(With agency inputs)