The Tripura Government has decided to launch a new scheme namely ‘Kishori Suchita Abhiyan’ in which free sanitary napkins would be distributed among girl students of class-VI to class XII of government and private schools.
The State Council of Minister gave its nod on Wednesday for implementation of the new scheme. Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath said this to media in Agartala today. He also said, the State Government has also decided to implement the ‘School Bag Policy-2020’ of the Central Government stipulating maximum weight of school bags that the students carry. Moreover, the State cabinet has given consent to give 0.03 acre land free of cost to Meteorological department for setting up weather station at Gokulpur in Dhwajanagar under Udaipur.
Nath said, “State Government announced distribution of free napkins among girl students in 2020-21 State Budget and accordingly State cabinet gave green signal to the new scheme – Kishori Suchita Abhiyan – today. The new scheme will benefit 1 lakh 68 thousand 252 girl students of the State. To implement the new scheme expenditure has been pegged at Rs 60 Lakh 57 thousand 72 for three months of ongoing FY”. The scheme will cover both the government as well as private schools.
He added, a total of Rs 1 crore 75 lakh 34 thousand and 907 will be spent in next FY while expenditure has been pegged at Rs 1 crore 86 lakh 28 thousand 288 for the FY 2022-23.
The State Cabinet has also decided to implement ‘School Bag Policy’ formulated by the Union Education Ministry mandating maximum weight of a school bag for school students. To this end, Nath said, maximum weight of school bags for Class I and II students should be between 1 kg 600 gm to 2 kg 200 gm. For students of Class III to V, weight should be between 1 kg 700 gm to 2 kg 500 gm. Similarly, the weight should be between 2 kg to 3 kg for students of Class VI-VII while for Class VIII, it is in between 2 kg 500 gm to 4 kg. For class IX-X student maximum weight of school bags should be between 2 kg 500 gm to 4.5 kg. And, finally, for class XI-XII student weight of school bags should not be more than 5 kg.
“The State cabinet has decided to adopt the Policy of the central Government”, Nath said. Meanwhile, Nath told media that more 46 thousand 500 doses of Covid vaccine reached State on Tuesday.
