PRINCE KUMAR
Ranchi, Jan 8: The Jharkhand government’s scheme for providing cycles to 6.5 lakh SC-ST, backward and minority children studying in classes 8th and 9th in government schools has been in limbo with the cancellation of tender for the second consecutive time.
It has become certain that in the financial year of 2021-22, the beneficiaries of the scheme will not be able to get the cycles. It is because the tender has been floated twice by the Welfare department of the state for the distribution of cycles yet both times only one company came to rescue the completion of the tender. The only company named Kohinoor participated in the tender process but was unable to complete the tender and the tender was cancelled.
Earlier, the amount for cycles was sent to the students through DBT in the account. But the government under the leadership of Hemant Soren decided to distribute the cycles.
A student in Zila School Ranchi said that the cycles would have been of great help in coming to school, as he has to cover about 5 kilometres to reach the school.
“Sometimes I miss my school because it becomes difficult to travel such a distance and I have to sacrifice as my parents are unable to pay for the auto fare,” the student said.
When departmental secretary Kamal Kishore Soan was contacted for his comment, he refrained from saying anything by disconnecting the call. He did not even respond to the WhatsApp message sent by the lagatar24.com’s correspondent.
Last year, the first wave of Covid had hit the distribution and it was delayed which was further cancelled. In a similar fashion, this year also the distribution got cancelled and the students had to pay for the delay due to governmental procedures.
The government has decided to spend Rs 122 crore every financial year for the cycle distribution scheme which means Rs 244 crore has to be spent for two financial years.
