Oppn slams Cong govt as free cycle scheme hits roadblock

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 7

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and AAPtoday condemned the Congress government for discontinuing the Mai Bhago Vidhya scheme under which bicycles were distributed to girls studying in secondary and higher secondary government schools in the state.

Akali MLA, Pawan Kumar Tinu, said it was shocking that the Congress government had discontinued the Mai Bhago Vidhya scheme which was launched in 2011-12 by the SAD-BJP government. He said under this scheme, bicycles were first given to students of Class XI and XII to encourage them to continue studies and to reduce school dropout rate. It was later expanded to cover all girl students of Class IX and X.

Stating that this would have a serious effect on girl child education in Punjab, the Akali leader said earlier when the Congress government had denied Scheduled Caste scholarships to Dalit students, the enrolment of SC students had come down from three lakh to two lakh in the state.

AAP said the Congress-led government, which had shown false dreams of giving free scooties to schoolchildren, has failed to provide even a single bicycle to the girl students. It said the government had failed to live up to the aspirations of the needy beneficiaries belonging to the poor strata of society.

Deputy Leader of Opposition Sarabjit Kaur Manuke said by reneging on the promise of giving free bicycles, the government had not only betrayed the student community, but also leveraged it to garnering political brownie points.