The state cabinet on Tuesday gave its nod for making 75 per cent attendance a must for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) students to get scholarships and check dropouts.
Students of classes I to X would now be able to get pre-matriculation scholarships from their schools on the condition they have 75 per cent attendance between April 1 and September 30, 2012, said Vijoy Prakash, principal secretary, planning and development department, who also holds the charge of the cabinet coordination department.
“An amount of Rs 435 crore would be spent on the scheme and would benefit 40 lakh SC and ST students,” Vijoy said. He added that the mandatory 75 per cent attendance would help check dropouts in schools.
The cabinet has also okayed a sum of Rs 82.50 crore for constructing six buildings for residential high schools for ST students, including Tharu tribe, in West Champaran district. Each of the buildings would cost Rs 13.75 crore. The cabinet has sanctioned Rs 35 crore to construct the schools in the 2012-13 fiscal.
Among other proposals approved by the cabinet was its nod to the law department’s plan to make 212 posts of additional district and sessions judge of fast-track court and higher judicial services permanent. Following the Supreme Court’s order to make the fast-track court judges permanent, 1,272 posts of non-gazetted employees of grades III and IV attached to additional district and sessions judge have also been adjusted and made permanent, Prakash said.
The cabinet also approved the cooperative department’s proposal to provide Rs 2 lakh each to 3,000 primary agriculture cooperative society in the current fiscal for trade of fertilisers and their storage in off season. Of Rs 2 lakh, 75 per cent would be provided to the primary agriculture cooperative society as loan at soft interest rate of four per cent while the remaining would be given as grant, Prakash said. The loan would be given for five years. Two thousand more primary agriculture cooperative society would also be given Rs 2 lakh in 2013-14 for the same purpose.
