Punjab orders alternate arrangements for border area students

Chandigarh, Sep 30 (IANS) With schools in Punjab's border belt being shut indefinitely due to escalation of tension between India and Pakistan, state Education Minister Daljit Singh Cheema on Friday issued instructions to provide alternate education arrangements for students of border districts displaced from their native places.

Cheema said that students who have been shifted to relief camps would get the education in the nearby schools.

"Students would not be required to take formal admission and to deposit any fee in these schools. The education department would take care of all the needs of these students so that their formal education does not suffer," he said.

Cheema said that separate sections would be created in the schools where the students of evacuated families go for studies. If any students who have not shifted to relief camps but have gone to their relatives' place, they may also attend the nearby schools without any formal admission or fee depositing, the minister said.

The Punjab government on Thursday had ordered evacuation of nearly 1,000 villages within the 10-km belt of the 553-km international border that Punjab shares with Pakistan. Schools and other institutions in the border belt were also ordered closed indefinitely.

Over 400,000 people have been asked to evacuate from the border belt villages.