Jharkhand Cabinet approves four ambitious schemes for students and youths

The Jharkhand Cabinet has approved four ambitious schemes to promote education and skill development of students and youths, an official said. The schemes include Higher and Technical Education department’s Mukhya Mantri Shiksha Prothsahan Yojana (MMSPY), Eklavya Prasikshan Yojana (EPY) and Guruji Student Credit Card Yojana (GSCCY), and Labour department’s Mukhya Mantri Sarathi Yojana (MMSY).

"President Droupadi Murmu will officially launch these schemes on Jharkhand’s Foundation day on November 15," cabinet secretary Vandana Dadel said on Thursday. The cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Thursday approved the four schemes and 34 other agendas.

Under the MMSPY, class 10 pass students will be provided free coaching at Jharkhand-based institutions of national repute for entrance examinations of engineering, medical, common law admission test, mass communication, fashion designing, hotel management and chartered accounting.

"Along with free coaching, a provision of Rs 2,500 scholarship per month has also been decided for lodging and other expenses of the student. The only eligibility condition to qualify for the scheme is that the student’s parents should not come under the income tax criteria," said Rahul Purwar, secretary of the Higher and Technical Education department.

The department targets to provide the benefit of the scheme to 8,000 students in a year. A detailed guideline for the selection of students and coaching institutions will be issued soon.

Under EPY, job-oriented free coaching will be provided for various competitive examinations such as the union public service commission, Jharkhand public service commission, bank PO, bank clerk, railways and staff selection commission. The department has set a target to provide coaching to 2,700 students in a year.

Purwar said the third scheme GSCCY is aimed at providing financial help to students, who would be selected for higher education, engineering, medical and others.

"Such students will be given a credit card, which has a maximum limit of Rs 15 lakh. Students can spend 30 per cent of Rs 15 lakh for non-institutional expenses such as lodging, food, books, laptops, etc. This 30 per cent component will go to the student, while the rest of the amount will go to institution as fees," he said.

Students will get this credit at an interest rate of 4 per cent and they will get 15 years' time to repay the loan. The EMI will start one year after completion of the course. The Labour department’s MMSY is part of the Jharkhand Skill Mission. This scheme will take the skill mission to block level, a Labour department official said.

"The skill training programmes are mostly restricted to district headquarters. The skilling programme will be taken to block level with the help of the new scheme," said Labour department secretary Pravin Toppo.

Non-availability of buildings at block level was the main hurdle for the scheme, he said. "Government has now allowed using abandoned buildings or schools in the off-time. The youths will be trained in various skilling programmes such as tailoring, sewing and carpentering," Toppo said.

He added, that "non-residential trainees will also be provided with an allowance of Rs 1000. If any of the trainees did not get a job after three months of training, an unemployment allowance of Rs 1,000 to boys and Rs 1,500 to girls or physically challenged trainee will be given till the end of the first year.” The cabinet also approved a hike in the dearness allowance of the state government employees as per the sixth pay commission from 203 per cent to 212 per cent.

The cabinet also approved Rs 461 crore for the construction of a 3.5-km high-level bridge over the Swarnreka river from Sakchi to Mango and Azad Basti. Besides, the cabinet sanctioned Rs 4.40 crore for construction of Palash Mart at Kanke Road in Ranchi.