By PTI

BHOPAL: Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad Sunday said school education in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh was worse than that in his native Jammu and Kashmir.

He said that NITI Aayog had ranked school education in MP as the poorest among all states.

"School education in Madhya Pradesh is worse than Kashmir which has been plagued by terrorism for the last 30 years. Education in MP is the poorest according to the NITI Aayog," Azad said at a press conference here.

Elaborating on his claim, Azad said, "In MP, 72,000 schools do not have electricity connections, 18,000 schools have only a teacher each and 58,000 school buildings have collapsed."

Hitting out at MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Azad questioned, "What education department is being run? This is jungle raj. Is there any law and order? Is there anything called education (in MP)?" He added that the maximum number of rapes took place in MP.

Commenting on malnourishment among children in MP, Azad claimed that 80 such children die in the state daily.

Referring to the press conference by four Supreme Court judges (in January this year) as well as recent developments in the CBI and Reserve Bank of India, Azad claimed that democracy was in "danger" in the country.

He alleged that the Narendra Modi government at the Centre had failed on all fronts and claimed that 56,000 IT professionals had lost their jobs in the last one year.

He said the Centre's implementation of GST and demonetisation had fuelled unemployment.

MP goes to polls on November 28 and counting of votes will be taken up on December 11.