Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier pitched for encouraging girls to pursue their education. In fact, PM Modi launched a mission –‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ — saying that discrimination against girls reflects “mental illness” and displays a mindset worse than that in the 18th century. Taking steps to fulfil his dreams, the BJP government in Assam has distributed scooties to 1000 girl students who secured top positions in state higher secondary exam. Taking to Twitter, Assam education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said,” To make young girls feel confident & live fearlessly, today we distributed 1000 Scooty to as many Assam students.” Sarma also announced that next year this number will go up to 5000. Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal was also present at the prize distribution event.

Sarma while announcing the scheme, yesterday tweeted, “Extremely glad to share – today we’ll distribute 1000 Scooty to Assam girl students who secured top 1000 position in the higher secondary exam. Feels great at having fulfilled another promise made during elections. Next year this number will go up to 5000.”

Earlier, Assam government had distributed more than 3 crore textbooks to government school students till Class X incurring a total cost of Rs 111.98 crore. The education minister said this the largest programme undertaken in any state of the country. “We have provided all textbooks free to every student studying in government schools right from Ka-shreni to Class X, and every student could start attending the new academic session from Monday with all the books in hand. This is a sort of a record for any state in the country,” Sarma said as per IE.

“The government has also initiated steps to provide free textbooks in certain subjects to students of Class XI and XII from the current academic year,” the education minister informed. The state government also promised that it would soon distribute free uniforms to students from the existing Class VIII to Class XII.

“The government had spent Rs 77.19 crore for providing 2.13 crore copies of textbooks to students from Ka-shreni (the entry-level Class in primary schools) to Class VII, a little over Rs 27.83 crore was spent for providing 92.17 lakh copies of textbooks to students of Class IX and X,” Sarma said. Earlier, the government also distributed free laptops to students who passed the Class X state board and equivalent exams with first division.