Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who in 2008 emulated Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s bicycle scheme for SC/ST girls, on Tuesday extended the scheme announcing that all Class X girl students in Orissa would get cycles from April this year irrespective of their caste.
“From April this year, over 1.7 lakh girls in Class X would get cycles,†Naveen said after a meeting.
In 2006, Nitish had started the ‘Mukhyamantri Balika Cycle Yojna’ under which his government distributed lakhs of bicycles to any schoolgirl in Std IX. Naveen started the scheme for SC/ST girls in Classes VIII and XI in 2008 in all scheduled areas of the state. The scheme was also applicable to SC/ST girls in Classes XI and XII in non-scheduled areas.
The girls would be asked to buy the cycle and then the money would be reimbursed by the government, a SC/ST department official said. The girls have to submit the receipt for cycles to claim reimbursement.