Haryana government to connect government and private schools through twinning programme

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana government plans to connect government and private schools through twinning programmes for students to learn from each other. While presenting the budget estimates for 2022-23 in the state assembly here on Tuesday, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said, “Under the programme, identified government schools will be established with audio-visual classrooms and connected with a partner private school. These schools will organise shared training and learning resources.

“I hope that the twinning programme will help in bringing society together to enable shared learning across institutions,” he said. Khattar also said the government proposes to start a new school health programme which proposes to screen 25 lakh school children twice a year and it will be launched from the next academic session. To provide safe transportation facilities for students in educational institutions and ensure that girl children do not drop out due to lack of safe and secure transport, the government will start the Safe and Accessible Transport: Haryana Initiative (SATHI). This facility will be provided to all girl children studying in government institutions, including senior secondary schools, colleges, Industrial Training Institutes, polytechnics, medical, para-medical and nursing institutions. The scheme will be notified in April, he said.

In the health and medical education sector, for which he allocated Rs 8,925 crore, Khattar said all sub-divisional level hospitals located at a minimum distance of 40 km from the nearest district hospital will be upgraded to 100-bed hospitals. By 2025, the number of graduate seats in medical colleges of Haryana would be increased to 3,035 from 700 in 2015, said Khattar, who also holds the finance portfolio.

In order to attract medical graduates to government service, a decision has been taken to reserve 40 percent seats in post-graduate medical courses in government medical colleges for doctors in government services. Considering the growing proportion of senior citizens in the population of the state, Senior Citizen Corner shall be introduced in all district civil hospitals with physiotherapy units, he said. In order to motivate doctors to set up their establishment in small towns, Khattar proposed to introduce a scheme in the budget for interest support to those doctors who wish to set up new hospitals, nursing homes or clinics in small towns.

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Interest subvention at the rate of 2 per cent for a period of three years will be provided to those who would like to invest in such facilities in municipal committees and 'Mahagrams' through loan assistance taken from financial institutions. For the labour force, the government will establish six new industrial hygiene laboratories in Panipat, Sonipat, Ambala, Hisar, Rohtak and Jind for regular medical examination of the workers. The hospital care for industrial workers shall be strengthened with the construction of a new 500-bed hospital in Manesar and expansion of the existing hospital in Gurugram from 163 beds to 500 beds by Employees State Insurance Corporation, he said.

In the transport sector, the process to purchase 20 luxury buses and 150 Heat Ventilated Air Conditioned buses is at an advanced stage, while in 2022-23, the government proposes to add another 2,000 ordinary buses of which at least 1,000 will be procured by Haryana Roadways. The government will also add 50 luxury buses and mini-buses for the routes where regular buses are not viable, he said.

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Khattar also said Haryana Roadways is moving to an electronic ticketing system which will begin to be rolled out from April 2022. “This will make Haryana the first state in the country to implement a comprehensive electronic ticketing system linked to the National Common Mobility Card with a centralised information and management system. “Passengers waiting for a bus can know on a real-time basis and on their mobile phones when the next bus is expected to reach,” he said. The government also proposes to introduce a new maxi-cab policy for the augmentation of point-to-point transportation options for the people.

The state government is working with the Ministry of Civil Aviation to develop a heliport facility in Gurgaon, which will not only meet the demand for helicopter connectivity to the National Capital Region but also respond to medical emergencies under the provisions of the central government's Helicopter Emergency Management Scheme.