50,000 meritorious women graduates to get scooties next month: Yogi Adityanath
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has announced that 50,000 meritorious women who have completed their undergraduate degrees in the 2025-26 academic session will be given free petrol-powered scooters under the state government's Rani Lakshmibai Scooty Yojana next month.
"Next month, we will give scooties to 50,000 meritorious girls," he said on Saturday, October 3, while addressing a scholarship distribution programme in Lucknow.
At the event, the CM also transferred more than Rs 148 crore in scholarships and fee reimbursements directly into the bank accounts of more than 4.6 lakh students from Classes 9-10 and the post-matric category for the current financial year.
He also handed over scholarship certificates to 11 students. Highlighting the push by the BJP-led Centre for direct benefit transfer (DBT) system, Yogi Adityanath said there was no shortage of funds for students and claimed that the scholarship system had become more transparent under his tenure.
"Earlier, only 60 to 70 children out of 100 benefited from scholarships. Clerks and others used to siphon off the money, leaving students cheated," he said, taking a swipe at the previous Samajwadi Party regime.
The UP CM said that earlier, students often spent more on commuting to access their scholarships than the amount they eventually received. He said the government had now ensured that every student's scholarship was routed directly into their bank account.
The chief minister also highlighted the scale of scholarship disbursement over the past year. He said Rs 2,750 crore was provided to 26.26 lakh students from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, while Rs 360 crore was distributed among 5.89 lakh students from minority communities.
Another Rs 3,072 crore was provided to 37 lakh students from Backward Classes, he said. The government also extended scholarships to 9.40 lakh students from low-income families.
Yogi Adityanath said the government had fixed a deadline for scholarship distribution and started transferring the amounts into students' accounts after completing the admission process.
Turning to education and competitive examinations, the chief minister said students in the state no longer needed to travel to other states to prepare for examinations such as JEE and NEET. He attributed the change to the Mukhyamantri Abhyudaya Coaching scheme.
"Earlier, youth used to go to other states to prepare for JEE and NEET. Now, youth are benefiting from this through Mukhyamantri Abhyudaya Coaching," he said.- Ends(With additional inputs from PTI)
Ashish Srivastava has eight years of experience in journalism. He completed his masters in journalism before training at the Dainik Jagran and working with a regional channel.
