Despite opposition, people still behind Sabuj Sathi scheme

In a heinous move to poison students’ minds against the Sabuj Sathi project of the state government, some teachers associated with CPI(M) are allegedly spreading canards against the scheme.

State Education minister Partha Chatterjee, Sovan Chatterjee Shamima Sheikh and Sonali Guha will take part in a programme where the girl students of a high school in Bishnupur will get cycles on Monday.

Sabuj Sathi project has been undertaken by the state government and under the scheme 40 lakh cycles will be distributed among the students of state run , aided and sponsored schools. 

There are 8235 such schools in the state. So far 22.5 lakhs cycles have been distributed and the remaining 3 lakh cycles will be distributed within February. 

Another 15 lakh cycles will be distributed in 2016-17 financial year.

The students preferring anonymity said that some teachers were telling that the quality of the cycles was bad and they would develop snag.

They also told that it would not benefit them in any way. Moreover, the girls have been misinformed about the total number of cycles distributed. 

“The madam told us that only a few thousand cycles have been distributed and the state government was giving fudged figure.” 

It may also be mentioned that the state government has the list of the beneficiaries along with the school where they are studying, the class in which they study and the postal address.

However, the students are very happy that they would get new cycles on Monday. Some of them who did not learn cycling have practiced over the past one month when it was announced that they would get cycles.

Dipankar Basu of Belur Boys’ High School who got a cycle last week is very happy. The headmaster of Shiromoni BM JR High in West Midnapore said the students got the cycles in October last year and they were very happy with it. He had told the students to take the cycles to nearby repairing shops to tighten up the handles, box and the paddles.

It may be recalled Jagadish Chandra Bose and his wife Lady Abala Basu used to demonstrate how to ride a cycle just to create confidence among the Indians more than a century ago. Bose believed that going to work on a cycle gives additional confidence to the person. This has come true. On getting the new cycles, the students are riding them and their confidence level has gone up.