Free bus passes and a nutritious mid-day meal are likely this year itself

Students of government junior colleges in Telangana are in for major freebies, if some crucial proposals put forth by the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) get the State government’s approval.

While free bus passes and a nutritious mid-day meal are likely this year itself, another key suggestion by the Board is to have uniforms for all the 404 government junior colleges, which are expected to be a major boon for students coming from financially weak families. The Telangana government is already providing free education and textbooks for students of government junior colleges.

For implementing the free bus pass scheme, the Board estimated an expense of Rs 10 crore annually, which has to be paid to the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation. The mid-day meal scheme is estimated to cost close to Rs 100 crore. While Rs 55 crore is required for non-recurring expenses such as construction of sheds and purchase of utensils, among others, over Rs 40 crore is estimated for the provision of food, including charges for cooks and workers. “The proposals were to the government. If they get approved, the free bus pass and mid-day meal schemes will be implemented this academic year itself,” A Ashok, Secretary, BIE, said.

So far, 27,000 students were newly admitted to government junior colleges and the Board set a target of 1.2 lakh enrollments for this academic year. The last date for completion of the first phase of admissions is June 30. “If free bus passes and mid-day meals are provided, admissions may further go up this year. The government is already providing education on the lines of corporate junior colleges, including coaching for competitive examinations of Joint Entrance Examination, National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test and Engineering and the Agriculture and Medical Common Entrance Test,” a senior official said.