Punjab Government is finally launching its much-hyped Mai Bhago Vidya Scheme by holding a State-level function at Jagraon on Friday in which a total of 1,52,330 girl students of Class XI and XII studying in Government schools will get free bicycles.
“Continuing the State Government’s focus on empowerment of girl students, the CM Parkash Singh Badal would launch this scheme,” said the state Social Securities and Women and Child Development Minister Surjit Kumar Jayani.
Jayani said that the State Government has released Rs41.90 cr for this scheme for the purchase of bicycles and decided to distribute these cycles to the girl students at their schools. Minister said that 82,244 and 70,086 class XI and XII girls, respectively, would benefit from the scheme this year.
“This is an initiative of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to minimize dropout of girl students from schools and motivate the girl students for higher education to empower them,” he added.
The Minister 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.