A total of 34 children, 27 tribal and 7 scheduled caste, have been admitted to a private English medium school in Odisha's Koraput district under 'Anwesha', a recently launched urban education programme.
Officials today said the district administration admitted the children to Vikash Vidyalaya in Koraput town under the scheme which aims to provide SC and ST children from rural areas an opportunity to receive quality education.
According to the scheme, which was launched by the state government in the district on Tuesday, 70 per cent of selected students will be from ST category, while the remaining 30 per cent will be from SC category. In each category 50 per cent of the seats will be reserved for girls.
Officials said 368 children from 14 blocks of the district had applied under the programme but only 34 could be accommodated in the current academic session.
"As many as 202 children out of the 368 who applied were found to be eligible for admission. However, as half the academic session is over, schools were reluctant to take in the children. Hence, only 34 children were admitted to the school," District Welfare Officer (Koraput) Trinath Rao said.
The students have been admitted to Class I and all their expenses, including school fee, tuition charges, library and miscellaneous fees, will be borne by the state government and paid to the school on annual basis, he said.
The administration will provide hostel facilities to the students and will also facilitate transportation of the students to school.
"The students will be provided with special coaching classes so that they can keep up with the other students," Collector (Koraput) Jaya Kumar V said.
"This an attempt to shape the inherent talent of the students and expose them to the spirit of competitiveness and excellence," he added.
(Reopens NRG 40)
Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police (rural area) Rakesh Pandey said the deceased was not a hosteler but was a day scholar at the university.
"Abhishek Singh died of dengue at his native place in Modi Nagar, Uttar Pradesh. He was a day scholar at the varsity," he said.
The officer also informed that a case has been registered against 200 unidentified students under relevant sections of Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 upon the complaint of the Dean of the university.
