Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains on Thursday visited the Government Senior Secondary School Baddowal (Ludhiana) where an unfortunate incident had taken place during the last few days due to the on-going renovation work of the school wherein one teacher Ravinder Kaur (45) lost her life while three other teachers namelry Narinderjit Kaur, Sukhjit Kaur, and Indu Rani got injured.
Sharing heartfelt condolences with the grieved family of deceased teacher Ravinder Kaur, the Minister also inspected the building of the Baddowal School. He said that Punjab Government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has initiated a special drive to renovate buildings of all government schools in the state under which a whopping amount of Rs. 900 crore has been spent to construct new bathrooms, rooms besides maintenance of existing infrastructure so that students in government schools can witness infrastructure at par with private educational institutions.
Mr. Bains further mentioned that the rural development and panchayat department had issued a contract of this school to a contractor and it has come to his notice during primary investigations that due to overburden on the second floor, this unfortunate incident has taken place in the school premises.
He further mentioned that a detailed safety check would be conducted across all the schools and standard operating procedure (SOPs) have already been formulated for schools having maintenance work so that no student, teacher, and mid-day meal worker can go at construction site.
The Education Minister also said that an FIR has already been lodged against the contractor adding that the teachers’ job is to educate students and there was no fault of the teacher in this incident. He further stated that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann led state government has accorded top priority to the education sector wherein better school infrastructure is being ensured in the state.
Meanwhile, the Minister also visited the Gurudwara Baba Deep Singh Baddowal where temporary classes were being held for the students of this under construction school. He also interacted with the students about their education. Prominent amongst others present on the occasion included Senior Leader AAP Dr K.N.S. Kang, SDM (West) Dr Harjinder Singh, DEO (Secondary) Dimple Madaan, and officials from civil and police administration.