Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Thursday warned schools of strict action against forcing parents and guardians to purchase uniforms, books, and stationery from the school itself or any specific vendors.
Published: April 30, 2026 8:44 PM IST
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Thursday warned schools of strict action against forcing parents and guardians to purchase uniforms, books, and stationery from the school itself or any specific vendors. She further reiterated that it is compulsory for schools to give a list of vendors from where these resources can be bought. She further warned schools that she will be conducting surprise inspections to ensure that schools comply with the rules.
She warned, “I can walk into any private school in Delhi for an inspection, anytime. Every school will state it clearly on its notice board, on its website, and at any store it operates that parents are free to buy uniforms, books, and stationery from anywhere. There will be no coercion, no captive buying, no single-vendor diktat.”
I can walk into any private school in Delhi for an inspection, anytime.
Every school will state it clearly on its notice board, on its website, and at any store it operates that parents are free to buy uniforms, books and stationery from anywhere. There will be no coercion, no… pic.twitter.com/HvCiB8Yyqc
— Rekha Gupta (@gupta_rekha) April 30, 2026
She further said, “Ensure this without exception. Any violation, any manipulation, will invite the toughest action available under the law. A takeover is not beyond consideration. My inspections are not a gimmick. They are enforcement in action. They are driven by the voices of parents who have written to me, telling me where I must go next. Keep sending your suggestions. Fixing Delhi is our responsibility. My Delhi. My responsibility.”
Principal screams at parents
Gupta’s warning comes on the heels of a principal screaming at parents in Hardoi’s Sunbeam School in the Civil Lines area. A video of the incident went viral on social media, where she could be seen misbehaving and screaming at the parents.
In the video, the principal, Mamta Mishra, can be seen berating a parent, Neelam Verma, while shouting at her in front of others. She is heard saying, “Strike her children’s names from the register,” while the parent remained standing and seemed to respond inaudibly. Neelam Verma said the row started when she visited the school to collect her daughter Alisha, who studies in UKG.
According to Verma, despite purchasing the required course material, the school later insisted she buy four extra notebooks costing around Rs 1,200 only through them. When her daughter began returning home without homework over the missing notebooks, she approached the principal for a short extension to make the purchase. “I requested her to give me 15 days’ time, but she refused to listen,” Verma said, alleging that the principal used abusive language, calling her ‘illiterate’ and ‘uncultured’, and threatened to strike her child’s name off the rolls.
She has since filed a complaint with the District Magistrate through the IGRS portal, a state-level online platform for managing public grievances in Uttar Pradesh.
