HUBLI: Vidya Poshak, Dharwad, established to give financial support to poor meritorious students, plans to disburse Rs. 1.5 crore in the form of assistance to 3,500 students during the academic year 2006-07.

The organisation's secretary Raghavendra Tikot told presspersons here on Monday that Rs. 25 lakh would be invested on libraries and learning centres and Rs. 15 lakh for career development programmes.

To select eligible students for giving financial assistance, the volunteers of the organisation would be visiting the houses of the students to ascertain their economic conditions. The organisation wanted to strengthen this network of volunteers in the coming years, he said.

In 2005-06, Rs. 70.87 lakh had been disbursed as financial assistance to 1,956 students. Among them, 1,589 students were studying in non-professional courses and 367 students were studying in professional courses, he said.

Textbooks had been issued through the organisation's lending libraries. As many as 7,640 books estimated at Rs. 20 lakh had been issued to 1,027 students. Among them, 60 per cent of the students were from rural areas and 82 per cent studied in local languages in high school.

The organisation had so far covered students in 16 districts of the State (mainly north Karnataka). During the year, seven libraries and four learning centres had been started. Vidya Poshak would be covering around 1,000 rural students under the English Learning Improvement Programme, Mr. Tikot said. Mr. Tikot said students who had appeared for the SSLC examination in March 2006 and confident of scoring not less than 75 per cent were eligible to apply.

The last date for receiving filled in application forms is May 6. Students can contact the office of the Vidya Poshak, 17/1, Vastrad Compound, Mahishi Road, Malamaddi, Dharwad (ph: 0836- 2747357).

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