Chandigarh, December 24 – Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Punjab, has lashed out at the Captain Amarinder Singh government over the issue of non distribution of winter uniforms to school students even as the mercury had plummeted to as low as 10 degrees Celsius.
In a joint statement issued from party headquarters in Chandigarh on Tuesday, party core committee chairman and MLA Principal Budh Ram and deputy leader of opposition, Bibi Sarabjit Kaur Manuke said what could be worse for the state government than its failure to distribute winter uniforms to 43 per cent of the beneficiaries (from 1st to 8th standard) belonging to the Dalit and BPL families while the winter chill was at its peak.
The AAP leaders held the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla, Social Security Minister Sadhu Singh Dharmasot and Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal squarely responsible for the inordinate delay in the distribution of winter uniforms to the needy beneficiaries.
Principal Budh Ram said that on an average 57 per cent of the school students were entitled to uniforms under the scheme, in many districts the percentage was pretty low. He said that the stubborn attitude of the government in the saddle had led to the inordinate delay in the distribution of winter uniforms to the students, adding that it learnt no lessons from the dressing down on the floor of the House for the poor quality uniforms distributed to the beneficiaries, last year, which, the parents of the children had refused to accept. They alleged that despite assurances from the ruling party nothing had changed for good during the current academic session, allowing the poor and Dalit families rue and rant.
Bibi Sarabjit Kaur Manuke said that the fixed amount of Rs. 600 per uniform to students was a cruel joke on the poor people in the face of the inflation touching a new high. She demanded a ‘dress code’ for all government and private schools of the state so that no student suffered from inferiority complex. Mannuke said that, besides raising the issue in the assembly, she had also written to Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, but lamented that no reply was received from him.