New Delhi: On Monday, the Social Welfare Minister of Delhi, Rajendra Pal Gautam, said that the IITs (Indian Institute of Technology) and several other reputed institutions have accepted over 30% of the students who were given free coaching under Delhi government's scheme.
Addressing a press conference here, Gautam said around 13,000 students had enrolled for the “Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana” in the last batch and around 4,000 of them got free coaching for engineering and medical entrance exams.
A total of 1,303 students have got admission into IITs, NIITs, Delhi Technological University, IP University and other reputed institutions, he said.
The Delhi government spends a maximum on Rs 1.4 lakh on free coaching of such students. Besides, each student gets an allowance of Rs 2,500 to cover miscellaneous expenses.
Started in 2019, the scheme initially covered students belonging to Scheduled Castes. The government then expanded it to include all children who have passed classes 10 and 12 from Delhi and their annual family income is less than Rs 8 lakh.
Students can avail the scheme to prepare for examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission, Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board, Staff Selection Commission, Railway Recruitment Board, banks and insurance companies and for medical and engineering pre-examinations.
In 2019-2020, nearly 5000 students got free coaching under the scheme. Later, the Covid pandemic disrupted the classes till October 2020.
