Himachal Pradesh government has decided to remove the caste column from the admission forms in the schools and the upcoming session. Chairing the meeting of the Himachal Pradesh scheduled caste department, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh said the government is committed to eliminating caste-based discrimination in society and promoting a sense of fraternity and equality.
He claimed that removing the caste column from school admission forms would be a step in this direction and would help ensure the students do not develop any sense of superiority based on caste.
However, scheduled caste members in order to avail the benefit of benefit in the government schemes will have to provide their caste details to receive the benefits without any difficulty.
The Himachal Pradesh government has launched several welfare schemes for the benefit of the Schedule Castes, so that all eligible beneficiaries should be made aware of all the initiatives available for them.
Under the Rajiv Gandhi Swarozgar Saur Yojana’, the government is providing subsidies for setting up projects ranging from 100 KW to 2 MW. A subsidy of 5 per cent is being provided for projects in tribal areas and 4 per cent in other areas.
He added that the government is providing a loan of upto Rs 20 lakh to meritorious students for higher education at an interesr of one per cent, so that students are not forced to stop their education.
He further mentioned about the implementation of ‘Apna Parivar, Sukhi Parivar Yojana’ for extremely poor families. Under this scheme, the eligible families would be provided 300 units of free electricity while women of these families will receive a pension of 1,500 rupees monthly.
Earlier, at the 9th meeting of the Himachal Pradesh State Higher Education Council (HPSHEC), state education minister Thakur directed educational institutions to continuously upgrade courses and prepare students not only for today’s employment opportunities but also for the jobs, technologies and challenges of the future.