Punjab government is all set to distribute free bicycles to 1,52,330 girl students of class 11th and 12th studying in government schools under Mai Bhago Vidya Scheme at a state level function being organized at Jagraon on October 25.
Disclosing this here today Mr. Surjit Kumar Jayani Minister for Social Securities and Women & Child Development Department said that continuing its focus on empowerment of girl students Chief Minister S. Parkash Singh Badal would launch this scheme. Jayani said that the state government has released Rs. 41.90 crore for this scheme for the purchase of bicycles and decided to distribute these cycles to the girl students at their schools.
Minister said that 82244 thousand 11th class & 70086 thousand 12th class girls would benefit from the scheme this year.
He said that this was an initiative of Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal to minimize dropout of girl students from schools and motivate the girl students for higher education to empower them. He said that the SAD-BJP government had launched this scheme in year 2011-12 by distributing 1,11,000 free bicycles to girl students worth Rs. 30 crore and it was decided to make it annual feature.