Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Sunday announced a bonanza of incentives for students belonging to the Scheduled Castes studying in Classes I to XII.
He announced increase in the amount of their monthly incentive ranging from Rs50 to Rs200, thus benefiting 11 lakh such students, both boys and girls, to the tune of additional Rs150 crore.
Hooda, addressing a State-level function organised to commemorate 122nd birth anniversary of Baba Saheb Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, said that the SC boys studying in classes XI and XII would now get Rs400 instead of Rs300 and for girls of the same classes it would be Rs600 instead of Rs400 earlier. Similarly, he said, SC boys studying in classes IX and X would now get Rs250 instead of Rs200 earlier whereas for girls, it would be Rs400 instead of Rs300 earlier. Hooda also announced that boys studying in classes VI to VIII would get an incentive of Rs200 instead of Rs150 and for girls of the same classes it would be Rs300 instead of Rs200 earlier.
He said the boys of classes I to V would now get an incentive of Rs150 instead of Rs100 and for girls of the same classes it would be Rs225 instead of Rs150 earlier. It may be recalled that the State Government had started this scheme in financial year 2008-09 to check dropout rate among the weaker sections of the society. Rs300 crore were spent by the State Government to give monthly incentives to 10.72 lakh SC school going students during last financial year.
Paying rich tributes to Dr Ambedkar, Hooda described him as great scholar, patriot, economist, jurist and historian, who rendered right of franchise to every person. All his life, Dr Ambedkar struggled to promote self-respect among the poorest of the poor. In the history of India, his name will always be written in golden letters, he added.