Punjab Education Minister Om Parkash Soni instructs the officials of the department to ensure quality and hygienic food for students in school.After visiting Government Senior Secondary Residential School for Meritorious Students at Amritsar, He said that he can't tolerate any compromise with the food in schools. The minister went straight to the classrooms and talked to the students about the requirements and issues faced by them. Most of the students complained about the quality of the food and lack of drinking water.Mr. Soni conducted an inspection of the food being prepared for the students and found it unsatisfactory. He ordered the DEO and school principal to constitute a committee of senior students who shall be reporting directly to the minister in regard of food, milk and water. The minister passed immediate instructions to the concerned officials to terminate the contract of the caterer without any warning if the committee found any dearth in food. Upon complaint by students minister ordered dinner must be served till 8PM and ordered the warden to ensure that all the students are properly fed.
DEO and principal of the school informed the minister about the different dates of summer vacations due to which government teachers adjusted at residential schools lose 20 days of vacation, to which immediate orders have been passed to the secretary of education for commencement of summer vacation for 1st of June for all schools of Punjab instead of 20th June for residential schools.Mr. Soni said that the prime concern of the government is education and health and Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh has made it clear that he shall not be tolerating any kind of indiscipline in these two departments. He said that clean water, nourishing food and quality education are the basic rights of a human and he shall be ensuring it at all costs. He said that he has issued instructions to the concerned authorities to ensure best of everything in the schools. The minister added that minor issues have been resolved instantly, the staff requirement shall be met when the schools reopen after the summer vacation, the report on improvement in food shall be sent to minister by the students committee and he shall be acting harshly if any discrepancy has found.Sh. Soni further informed that he also visited Government Sen Sec School at Khasa and found the staff present in school. Orders for the provision of water cooler and renovation of the dilapidated building have been given to the department. The schools were short of Commerce and English Lecturers and a Sports Teacher, to which minister has ordered the DEO to make the arrangements.