SAD flays Cong for 'delay' in distribution of school uniforms

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) here on Thursday hit out at the ruling Congress for the alleged delay in the distribution of winter uniforms among schoolchildren and demanded the immediate dismissal of Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla.

The SAD also demanded stern action against the officials whose alleged criminal neglect was making "thousands of students suffer" in cold weather.

In a statement issued here, former education minister and senior SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema said Singla was not taking any interest in addressing grievances of students as well as teachers and "believed only in using oppressive methods and abusive language in face of any crisis" in the Education Department.

"Not providing winter uniforms to hapless school kids in this extreme cold shows that Vijay Singla neither has a sense of duty nor any human compassion. So, he should be dismissed immediately," Cheema said.

Cheema alleged that the Congress government's failure in providing uniforms had affected studies of around 65,000 students.

"The procurement process should have started in March to ensure the delivery of uniforms to the needy students. But it was unnecessarily dragged to September, making the timely delivery of uniforms next to impossible," he said, adding that the officers responsible for the "grave negligence" should be taken to task.

The SAD leader also said last year, winter uniforms were not distributed in time among 1.25 lakh students.

Cheema warned the Congress government against supplying poor quality uniforms.

Last year, winter uniforms distributed by the state government at the fag end of the winter season were of very poor quality, he alleged.

"The state government should ensure good quality uniforms for poor children as getting free uniform was their constitutional right," he added.

Asking the state government to abandon the centralised tendering process for school uniforms and let school managements handle it, Cheema said the government should revert to the old time-tested system of letting the school managements purchase uniforms.