E-Paper
Deliver food grains to students at home: Punjab director of public instructions
The letter does not specify who is going to deliver the packets
The latest order by the Punjab director of public instructions (DPI, elementary) Inderjit Singh asking the district education officers (DEOs, elementary and secondary) to get the food grain packets delivered at students’ homes amid lockdown in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak has put the authorities in a fix.
Moreover, the letter does not specify who is going to deliver the packets. However, the school heads and teachers said they will be assigned the duty. But they are clueless about who will prepare the packets as per the quantity set by the authorities.
The letter also mentions that the authorities must e-transfer the cooking cost in the bank accounts of students as per the funds allotted. But most students in the district do not have bank accounts. As a result, authorities are looking for other options to provide the funds to students.
A school head of a government school, requesting anonymity, said, “While the police are lodging FIRs against the violators amid lockdown due to coronavirus outbreak, the authorities want teachers to make arrangements for delivering food grain packets to children at their homes. Will the government take responsibility if a teacher gets affected while distributing grains?”
As per the orders, a sealed packet of 1.2kg wheat and 1.2kg rice will be delivered to the house of each primary student. Further, a packet containing 1.8kg wheat and 1.8kg rice will be delivered to each upper primary student at his/her doorstep.
The food grains for 24 days will be delivered to the students of Classes 1 to 8 and the funds of ₹107.52 for primary students and ₹161.04 for the upper primary students will be e-transferred in their bank accounts.
1.2 LAKH STUDENTS ARE COVERED UNDER SCHEME
In Ludhiana, 1.2 lakh students are covered under the mid-day meal scheme. These students are studying in 1,536 government schools including primary, middle, high and senior secondary schools.
DEO (elementary) Rajinder Kaur said, “We have received the letter from the higher authorities and will abide by the order. Many teachers in the district are voluntarily providing ration and funds to the underprivileged students. We will make all efforts so that no government school student may sleep with an empty stomach.”
“Though many students in the district do not have bank accounts, we will look for other ways so that funds and food grains are provided to the students,” she added.
Inderjit Singh said, “The order has been issued so that students can survive in these tough times. Many teachers are on duty as a sector officer and they will make arrangements to deliver food grains to the students.”
