Over 30 percent under privileged students to get free coaching accepted into reputed institutions

NEW DELHI: More than 30 percent of the poor students who got free coaching for engineering and medical entrance exams under a Delhi government scheme have been accepted in reputed institutions, including Indian Institutes of Technology, Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam said on Monday.

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.

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Besides, each student gets an allowance of Rs 2,500 to cover miscellaneous expenses. Started in 2019, the scheme initially covered students belonging to Schedules 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, 4,953 students got free coaching under the scheme. Later, the Covid pandemic disrupted the classes till October 2020.