Chandigarh: Punjab government to provide free bicycles to 1, 52,330 government school girls of class 10+1 & 10+2 under Mai Bhaggo Vidya scheme this financial year. Punjab Government has sanctioned Rs 47 crores for this scheme.
Divulging this here today Mr. Madan Mohan Mittal, Minister for Social Securities & Women & Child Development Department said that whole process for distribution of free bicycles under the Mai Bhago Scheme is completed by the department. He said that bicycles would be handed over to the girl students of 11th & 12th class students within two months.
Mr. Mittal said that education department has provided the data of girl students studying in government schools of each district. As per figures provided by the education department total 82244 thousand 11th class & 70086 thousand 12th class girls would benefit from the scheme this year. He further said that Mai Bhago Scheme was launched in the year 2011-12 and 1,11,049 government school girls of 11th & 12th classes benefited under the Mai Bhago Scheme during the year 2011-12.
Minister further said that this scheme was launched with the personal initiatives of Chief Minister S. Parkash Singh Badal to provide better opportunities to girls for higher studies. He added that results are already visible by the decrease in the dropout rate of girl students from schools. He added that the Punjab Government distributed over 1 lakh 11 thousand and 49 bi-cycles to the girl students studying in class 11th and 12th with the cost of Rs. 30 crore last year.