Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday demanded immediate resignation of Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal for mismanaging the state finances to such an extent that the Congress Government had failed to release Rs 35 lakh for purchase of winter uniforms for school children in the state.
“Manpreet Badal should also apologise to the parents of the poor children for cruelty meted out to their wards by denying them winter uniforms in the biting cold. Many school children aere not attending school due to the Congress government’s failure to distribute uniforms to them. Many others have fallen sick due to severe cold weather conditions,” said SAD MLA and spokesman Pawan Kumar Tinu.
Tinu said that each section of society was fed up by Manpreet’s non-performance, but the dalits were most perturbed because he had consistently shown an anti-Dalit bias by discriminating against them.
“Earlier Manpreet denied post-matric scheme facilities to SC students for more than a year reducing enrolment of dalit students by one lakh in the state’s colleges. Still, this scholarship has not been released fully,” he said.
Tinu added that now, the Finance Minister has refused to clear a measly Rs 35 lakh for school children in government schools most of whom belong to the Scheduled Caste and under privileged sections of the society.
“Congress government has shown such insensitivity despite the fact that the lion’s share of Rs 76 lakh earmarked for this scheme had been released by the Centre,” he said.
Tinu said that winter uniforms were provided consistently to school children during SAD- BJP tenure as the then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal understood the need to implement the scheme in right earnest. “Presently, the Congress Government has not even initiated the process of purchasing winter uniforms which were supposed to be distributed to children by November 15,” he said adding that it was a fact that the winter season ended by January 31.
The Akali leader said while facilities like winter uniforms and bicycles for girl students were not being provided, an additional burden in the form of examination fee had been thrust on students.
“School education is supposed to be free, but the Congress Government and its over-clever Finance Minister have managed to circumvent this clause also by introducing an examination fee of Rs 1,200. Besides this, in case of practical subjects, an additional Rs 250 per subject is being levied from students,” he pointed.