Himachal Pradesh govt for DBT to students for free uniforms

Shimla: In a new ‘Vyavastha Parivartan’, a pet slogan of Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, the Himachal Pradesh government has decided to do away with the practice of buying school uniforms for free distribution to school students.

Instead, the government has decided to transfer an amount of Rs 600 per student to all the boys and girls of classes 1 to 8 through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), for providing them with free School uniforms.

The funds will be transferred directly to the name of the student or that of their mother. This will benefit about 5.25 lakh students, Sukhu stated here on Monday.

The state government has taken this decision to minimize the extra financial burden on the parents, he said, adding that transferring the amount directly to the beneficiary will also ensure transparency.

The Chief Minister said that the state government is always alive to the needs of students and it has been taking various decisions to benefit them.

Earlier, the students had to wait for the uniform because of the lengthy process of distribution of the uniforms, but now they can instantly go for the same.

He said the government was committed to providing better educational infrastructure to the children and working in this direction, Rajiv Gandhi Day Boarding schools will be opened in a phased manner in all the assembly constituencies.

Apart from providing quality education, these modern schools will also provide a suitable study environment to the students and ample space for other curricular facilities as well, stated the Chief Minister.

The scheme to provide free uniforms was started during the BJP regime led by Prem Kumar Dhumal. The successive Congress government led by Virbhadra Singh and later the BJP government under Jai Ram Thakur also continued

the scheme.