Other States - Haryana   

Major incentive for Dalit students

KARNAL: Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Sunday announced incentives worth Rs. 1,000 crores mainly to encourage Dalits to provide education to their children.

Addressing a “Dalit Samman” rally at the New Anaj Mandi here, Mr. Hooda announced that a Rs.260-crore scheme would be implemented which envisages financial incentive of Rs.100 per month for boys and Rs.150 per month for girls at the time of their admission. This incentive would be given up to Class V.

And from Class VI to VIII, the incentive would be enhanced to Rs. 150 for each boy and Rs. 200 for each girl. From class IX to XII, this would go up to Rs. 200 per month for boys and Rs. 300 per month for girls. In case of Science students after class X, the rate of incentive would be Rs. 300 per month for boys and Rs. 400 per month for girls. The scheme would be effective from next academic session.

He said that this scheme had been introduced to check drop-out rate among Scheduled Caste students.

Mr.Hooda also announced a Rs. 400-crore scheme to develop infrastructure like facility of water supply, power and streets in the colonies where plots of 100 sq. yards each would be allotted free of cost to members belonging to Scheduled Castes and those living below the poverty line.

He also announced that villages with more than 50 per cent of population belonging to Scheduled Castes would be given Rs. 50 lakhs each during the next two years to accelerate the pace of development. Similarly, in case of urban slums where the population of Scheduled Castes is more than 50 per cent in any ward, Rs. 1 crore each would be given in the next two years.

He also announced that Dalit families would be totally exempt from payment of house tax in urban areas.

Even though Mr.Hooda did not name any political outfit, his assertion that people carrying “yellow, blue and green flags” had no raison d’ etre and were totally irrelevant in the Haryana political context was viewed as a sort of indirect and veiled attack on the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the newly-launched outfit of former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal and suspended Congress MP Kuldeep Bishnoi and the Indian National Lok Dal.

Mr.Hooda cautioned the people, especially the Dalits, not to be misled by such parties which had no “place” in the political spectrum in the State. The Congress was the only party which had always stood for the cause of Dalits.

He also announced to institute a Chair named after Saint Kabir at Maharishi Dayanand University.

Union Minister of State for Poverty Alleviation and Urban Employment Selja, Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan, Karnal MP Arvind Sharma and Ministers and MLAs were present besides president of Haryana Congress Phool Chand Mullana.

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Major incentive for Dalit students

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