Punjab School Education department has allotted a fund of over Rs 4 crore to create awareness among the school staff and students regarding how to react during an emergency or natural calamity related incidents, besides making arrangements to avoid any exigency like electrocution or fire.
Disclosing this in a press communiqué issued here today, Punjab School Education Minister S. Harjot Singh Bains said that the instructions have been issued to the heads of elementary and secondary schools to use the funds to install display boards carrying emergency helpline numbers like police-112, fire-101, ambulance-108, women helpline-1091, traffic helpline-1073 and child helpline-1098 etc.
The Minister further said that the school heads have also directed to draft an evacuation plan keeping in view of the safety of school staff and students in case of any fire incident in the school or natural calamity, and install emergency panic alarms wherever needed.
He said that the school's staff has been asked to keep regular checks on school buildings to ensure that electric equipment and wires are in order. Emphasising on the need of training to tackle with any exigency, the School Education Minister said that the instructions have been issued to organize special training programs in the schools inviting experts dealing with the natural calamities.
He said that the school heads would ensure that the expenditure should be incurred through the EAT module of the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) portal and the same should be timely updated on PRABANDH portal to facilitate online monitoring of the funds.
Reiterating the Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Singh Mann led Punjab Government’s commitment to provide safe and secure environment in the schools, S. Harjot Singh Bains said that the school education department is working on a mission to provide the state-of-the-art educational facilities in its schools, besides ensuring adequate and safe amenities for its students and staff.