The fear of irreparable damage to the academic activities due to ongoing pandemic emergency has become more evident on Thursday after the Sindh education minister's hint for revising earlier decision of reopening the educational institutions on June 1.
Speaking at a press conference, Sindh Education and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani said at present the reopening of educational institutions in the province on June 1 "doesn't seem a feasible option".
The education minister said a final decision in this regard would be taken after the meeting of Steering Committee of Education Department.
He said Sindh govt's entire decisions were meant to safeguard the lives and health of the people in the province. However, the final decision regarding the reopening of educational institutes would be made in a steering committee meeting.
The minister categorically rejected the news that the Sindh government was going to reopen educational institutes on 1st June. He said no final decision had been taken regarding the reopening of educational institutes so far.
Ghani said the Sindh government instructed private schools to give a 20 percent concession in tuition fees and thousands of schools followed the instruction even after the issuance of a stay order by the high court on April 16. "The same instructions were also followed by the private schools when stay order ended on April 29."
The minister pointed out that parents could register their complaints on the phone numbers given by the Sindh Directorate of Inspection and Registration of Private Institutions.
Ghani said the electric and gas supply companies had been asked by the Sindh government to not charge utility bills from customers who consumed less than 200 units. "But the bills would be taken within 10 months," he added.
"However, the Sindh government has received complaints in this regard. The reason behind requesting federal government for providing relief to the people because the electric and gas providers come under the jurisdiction of central government."
Answering a question, Ghani said the Sindh government was fully aware of the difficulties being faced by the traders and businessmen. "But we will make a decision on the National Coordination Committee's advice that would be implemented in the entire country. The NCC has suggested the opening of trade centres and markets, but the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf should avoid politics on this."
Ghani said there was a huge gap between the resources of the federal and provincial governments. "This year we were expecting Rs835 billion from the federal government, but it seems that the federal government will not transfer the whole amount. The Centre can provide relief to the public as it has no plan to return foreign debts and initiate development projects."
Ghani demanded that the federal government should provide maximum relief in the account of health.
Regarding the labour issues, Ghani said the provincial labour department had received 73 complaints so far regarding the dismissal from jobs and non-payment of salaries to the labourers associated with various industries in the province during the coronavirus lockdown.
Since the lockdown came into effect, the Sindh government had issued notifications barring the businessmen and industrialists from rendering the labourers jobless or stopping them payment of salaries during the Covid-19 emergency, the minister said.
Ghani said the labour department has started taking action against employers who rendered labourers jobless or are not paying salaries during the lockdown regime. He said all such complaints were being received on the helpline service of the department having 021-99243822 that had already been advertised. He appealed to the industrialists and businessmen to avail the special loan scheme of the State Bank to keep paying salaries to their labourers and also stop their termination from service. Ghani appealed to the federal government to keep the interest rate of the loan scheme as low as possible.
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