The Mamata Banerjee government on Tuesday decided that its Yogyashree scheme for students would now widen its ambit to include beneficiaries from the minorities, the OBCs, and the general category, to enable more students of Bengal to avail of complimentary training for engineering and medical courses.

The chief minister, in a statement issued on X, made the announcement.

"We are proud that our "Yogyashree" scheme which we started to provide completely free-of-cost training to SC/ST students of the state for admission in engineering and medical courses has been yielding increasingly greater and greater benefits for our SC/ST boys & girls. Now we shall include the boys and girls of Minority, OBC and General categories also in this scheme," she wrote.

Mamata said this year, Yogyashree trainees for 23 ranks — including 13 IIT seats — in the JEE (Advanced), 75 ranks in JEE (Main), 432 ranks in WBJEE, and 110 ranks in NEET.

"These achievements in these tough competitive examinations are better than even the earlier years' results," she wrote.

"In consideration of the value of this critical training support to our disadvantaged boys and girls, we have increased the number of centres in the State now to 50 and number of our supported trainees to 2000 and the training will be given from Class XI onwards for better preparation," she added.

The scheme was launched in January by the chief minister at an event in the city. Under it, students get 300 hours of training over six months, comprising classes thrice a week.

"Let our boys and girls from the weaker sections be engineers and doctors in larger numbers. We shall now include students of Minority, OBC, and General categories also in this scheme," wrote Mamata. "Kudos to them!"