The Delhi Cabinet on Tuesday, September 3, 2019, has decided to include other backward class (OBC) and general category students in its ‘Jai Bheem Mukhyamantri Yojana’, and enhance financial assistance from ₹40,000 to ₹1 lakh for coaching for various competitive exams.
‘Jai Bheem Mukhyamantri Yojana’
In a press conference on the Cabinet decisions, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that earlier, the scheme was only for the scheduled caste category students under which financial assistance of up to ₹40,000 would be provided. The move comes ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections which are scheduled to be held early next year.
According to Kejriwal, a civil service aspirant will be provided financial assistance up to ₹1 lakh for 12-months coaching. An applicant whose annual family income is less than ₹8 lakh will be able to avail the scheme.
Later in a tweet, he termed his government’s decision as “historic” and said, “ …every child is a part of my family. It is my responsibility to take care of his education.”
The chief minister said, “Children born in poor families are also very intelligent, but in the absence of resources for coaching, they are left behind, and only those with sufficient economic resources have access to coaching.”
He said that the Delhi government is committed to ensuring that no child is denied coaching for competitive exams due to lack of financial resources. He said, “It was for this very reason that the Delhi government had launched ‘Jai Bhim Mukhyamantri Pratibha Vikas Yojana’ a year back.”
Delhi students belonging to SC, ST, OBC and EWS categories with total family income less than Rs eight lakh per year will be eligible for the scheme. For the judicial services examination, the Delhi government will provide Rs. one lakh for the coaching of up to 12 months.
For the entrance examination of professional courses for students with science stream like engineering, NDA and CDS, 11-month coaching will be provided with the financial assistance of Rs one lakh.
The AAP government will give financial assistance of Rs 50,000 for coaching for the entrance examination for other professional courses such as MBA, CLAT, etc.
