‘About 1.3L pupils to get bicycles across Murshidabad dist’

kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday marked the 8th phase of distributing bicycles under the ‘Sabooj Saathi’ scheme by distributing 5,000 bicycles from the venue of her distribution programme at Sagardighi in Murshidabad.

“We will distribute over 30,000 bicycles across the state today (Monday). A total of 1.3 lakh students will receive bicycles across the district,” said Banerjee.

According to sources in the Backward Classes Welfare department over 12 lakh bicycles under the Sabooj Sathi scheme to students of class IX, in state-run, state-aided schools and Madrasa across the state will be distributed in the next few months.

In the 2022 academic year, about 12,27,487 students of Class IX registered through the Sabooj Sathi portal. The total number of schools to be covered in the distribution process is 8763.615 places across the state. These places have been earmarked from where the cycles will be handed over to the beneficiaries.

So far, about 1.06 crore students studying between classes IX and XII have received bicycles under the scheme. Sabooj Sathi scheme received international recognition with the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) on September 2020, handing over the winner’s prize to the state government for this project. The then state Finance minister Amit Mitra announced the scheme in the state Budget during 2015-16.

Every cycle contains a Sabuj Sathi logo, designed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The scheme, the only-of-its kind in the country, has helped the students, particularly in the rural areas immensely. It has brought down the number of child marriages in the rural belt.