After successfully implementing the plan to provide free coaching under 'Jai Bhim Yojana' to Scheduled Caste (SC) and scheduled Tribe (ST), the Social Welfare, SC/ST department of Delhi Government has decided to extend the benefit of the scheme to the students belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category as well. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government is also planning to increase the coaching time in order to provide a quality education.

The Minister of SC/ST and Social Welfare Department, also the brain behind the scheme Rajendra Pal Gautam said, "We have successfully implemented the scheme for SC/ST students under which about 30 students have secured admissions in top university such as IIT, NEET, Netaji Subhash University of Technology, Delhi University, Benaras Hindu University and others. Thus, the Government has planned to extend the scheme to the needy students from OBC and general category students coming under EWS category, who will avail the free coaching classes."

"Chief Minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal believes that the students with talent and skills should not lag behind because of poverty. Everyone has the Right to Education and in many cases talented students miss the chance due to poverty thus, the government has decided to extend the facility to the other category students. The department has prepared cabinet note for the extension of the scheme to the OBC and EWS category students and are expecting to get approval soon. "The cabinet note is prepared and we will announce this happy news to the public tomorrow on Thursday," Gautame said.

The OBC and EWS students whose annual family income is not above Rs 8 lakh will avail the facility under this scheme. Currently under the scheme about 5000 students of SC/ST are provided free coaching classes in top coaching centres but with the extension of this scheme the seats will be increased to 15000 to provide free education to the poor needy students of OBC and EWS, the minister added.

Under Jai Bheem Yojana, free coaching classes are provided for engineering, medical, Civil Services, judicial services and other competitive exams, he added.

"The department has also decided to increase the number of courses coaching centres, time period of coaching and fees for the particular course. The fees for engineering and medical examinations will be extended to Rs 1 lakh, While coaching fees for the civil services will be doubled to Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 50,000 will be sealed by the government as coaching fees for Group-I officers. Besides, an amount of Rs 25,000 has been proposed for Staff Selection Services (SSC) examination. Till now the government paid Rs 40,000 as coaching fees for the entire session", Gautam said.

Besides, the time period of the coaching will be increased. Currently, the students are provided four months coaching but now it will be extended to one year once the cabinet accords its approval for the scheme, he said.