News
Effective bicycle distribution scheme in shambles as a 3 months of schools is over and students yet to receive bicycles.
3 months into school but class VIII students from government and aided schools are still waiting to receive their bicycles which the government had promised in June-July. The reason for this inordinate delay can be attributed to zero response by bicycle dealers to the tenders launched in March.
It has been 3 months since the start of school but class VIII students from government and aided schools are still waiting to receive their bicycles which the government had promised in June-July.
The reason for this inordinate delay does not lie with the government; it is due to the poor response of bicycle dealers. Although the department of primary and secondary education floated a timely tender in March, not even a single dealer has responded to it. "There were issues when the tender was floated. The department requires 5.7 lakh bicycles, and not many people take bulk orders to sell them. Dealers have to purchase the bicycles from the manufacturers and assemble them. It is not an easy task when the number is huge. To ensure the supply, the department even tried to on-board dealers from neighbouring states this year," said officials in the know.
The scheme was conceived to motivate students –especially girls from rural areas to attend school when first launched in 2006. Fellow and programme head for Universalisation of Equitable Quality Education Programme at National Law School of India University, Niranjanaradhya VP, labelled the delay as unfortunate.
The bicycle scheme has actually borne fruit in the past with verifiable figures to back the claim. Initiated in 2006 by the then Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy, 4.2 lakh bicycles were distributed in academic year 2006-07 which rose to 4.35 lakh in 2007-08. The direct result of this move was that admissions in schools continued to rise till 2000. A staggering 12 lakh children took fresh admissions in aided high schools and government schools in 1999 while 10 lakh fresh admissions happened in 2000. However, post 2000 there was a dip in admissions.
* Read the original story by Pavan MVI on www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com