1050 girl students of Punjab's government secondary and higher secondary schools are all set to avail free hostel facility with completion of 21 girls hostels in educationally backward blocks of eight districts namely Bathinda, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Mansa, Mukatsar, Patiala, Sangrur and Tarn Taran. Disclosing this here today a spokesman of Education Department said that the state government was committed to promote girls education by providing quality education alongwith infrastructure and hostel facilities to the needy girls belonging to schedule castes and marginalized sections of the society.He said that these 21 hostels have been constructed at the cost of Rs. more than 11 crore with each hostel's construction cost was Rs. 52.5 lac.

He said that the main objective of creating hostel facilities in government schools situated in educationally backward areas was to bring more and more girls students to schools after their elementary education as these hostels would provide free accommodation to the girl students reading in ninth to 12th standards. He said that it was noticed that most of girl students could not continue their studies due to economic constraints of their families. He informed that more areas of the state would be covered under this scheme in near future.