In order to contribute their bit in the war against coronavirus, students of ITIs have offered their services to stitch masks free of cost for civil and police administration and for panchayats.

Anurag Verma, Principal Secretary (Technical Education and Industrial Training) Punjab said that Technical Education Minister Charanjit Singh Channi has appealed to the staff and students of the department to contribute in the battle against coronavirus. On his appeal the staff and students of ITIs have offered this service, he said. "ITIs of the state are running trades of sewing technology, fashion technology etc. About 2000 students of these trades have offered to stitch masks free of cost for district administration, police and health workers and each student can stitch about 25 masks daily," he said.

He said that on the directions of the Technical Education Minister, he has written a letter to all the Deputy Commissioners in the state that they can get masks stitched from the students of ITIs free of cost. He said that about 50,000 masks can be stitched free of cost daily for district administration.

He also said that till date about 50,000 masks have been prepared by students of government ITIs at 76 different ITIs of the state and has been handed over to local administration and health department. "At some of the places, raw material for these masks was provided by panchayats, district administrations and NGOs," he said.