TEAM HERALD
CALANGUTE: The Minister for Art and Culture, Dayanand Mandrekar, stated that the State government has amended the Indira Bal Rath scheme to benefit a larger section of students.
Mandrekar was speaking after distributing tablets to the students of Sacred Heart of Jesus High School, Parra. On the occasion, Mandrekar also inaugurated the Bal Rath bus provided to the school in the presence of Verla-Parra Sarpanch Mohan Dabhale, Deputy Sarpanch Agasio D’Souza, Anjuna-Caisua ZP member Vasudev Korgaonkar, panchas, Headmistress Marilyn Vaz, Manager Walter D’Souza, teachers and students.
Speaking further, Mandrekar said the BJP government amended the Indira Bal Rath scheme to benefit a larger section of students.
“The Cabinet decided to change the name of the scheme from Indira Bal Rath to Gomanth Bal Rath transferring the procedural rights to department of Education from the Social Welfare department to avoid misuse of the scheme. However, we need to make additional amendments like sanctioning additional number of buses for schools with larger number of students,” said Mandrekar.
Addressing the issue of tablets for higher class students, Mandrekar said, “Now, we have concentrated on students of Std 5 and 6, but by the time we start distributing it to higher class students like 7, 8, etc, the beneficiaries of the tablets will be the same students who have already availed the benefits of the scheme in lower classes. So, it will be better to concentrate on lower class students to give them an opportunity for advanced learning.”
Earlier, Headmistress Vaz welcomed Mandrekar and other dignitaries for the function and thanked them for their support and co-operation.
