Sabooj Sathi: State to start distribution of 12L bicycles

kolkata: The state government will soon start the distribution of over 12 lakh bicycles under the Sabooj Sathi scheme to students of class IX, in state-run, state-aided schools and Madrasas across Bengal.

The state government has set a target of disbursal of these cycles by February 2023.

It is learnt that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has instructed the Backward Classes Welfare (BCW) department which executes the project to make all arrangements ready so that the distribution can start immediately.

"The registration of students in the Sabooj Sathi portal has already been completed," a senior official of the BCW department said.

According to sources in the BCW department in the 2022 academic year at least 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 which have been earmarked from where the cycles will be handed over to the beneficiaries.

The district magistrates have been asked by Nabanna to make arrangements so that 4000 cycles can be sent to each district by December 20.

So far, about 1.06 crore students studying between classes IX and XII have received bicycles under the scheme.

The Sabooj Sathi scheme has received international recognition. The then state Finance minister Amit Mitra had announced the scheme in the state Budget during 2015-2016 fiscal.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee distributed the first batch of bicycles to the students at a function at Gopiballavpur (then in West Midnapore and now in Jhargram district) in October 2015.

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) had on September 2020 handed over the winner's prize to the state government for the Sabooj Sathi project.

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.

Each bicycle distributed to the boys costs Rs 3,329

while those given to the girls cost Rs 3,369.