File photo: Girls ride on bicycles to school
Punjab government has decided to distribute bicycles to over 1.5 lakh girl students of the state over the next three months.
"Over 1.5 lakh girl students of government schools are all set to ride new bicycles to their schools with the state government finalising the plan to complete distribution within the next three months," state Public Works minister Sharanjit Singh Dhillon said today.
The government has set aside Rs 47 crore for the "Mai Bhago Vidya Scheme" under which all girl students of Class IX to XII would be gifted bicycles, he said, adding that last year government had already distributed over 1.11 lakh bicycles to girls studying in Class XI and XII at a cost of Rs 30 crore under the scheme which was envisaged to promote education among girls and check dropout rates.
"The scheme has been successful as dropout rate among girls has considerably gone down," he said at a function in Ludhiana, where over 13,000 girls were handed over bicycles.
The state government has also rolled out several other welfare schemes for overall development of students studying in government schools, Mr Dhillon added.