Funds under SC/ST sub-plans to be used for the purpose; plan to send 500 students abroad this year

The government has decided to provide coaching to 5,000 candidates of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes this year to enable them to pass GRE, TOEFL and IELTS and pursue higher education in the US and Europe.

The “foreign education” to these disadvantaged sections will be extended using the funds of SC/ST sub-plans which are now named Indiramma Kalalu.

500 candidates to go abroad

Arrangements are being made to send 500 candidates abroad this year, to begin with.

An advisory board will be constituted to identify the universities abroad for the purpose and a cell formed at Hyderabad to monitor their education later. Twenty-two applications received already are being processed.

The decision was taken at a meeting held by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy here on Tuesday to review the implementation of the scheme. Deputy Chief Minister C. Damodar Rajanarsimha, who put in efforts for months to formulate the sub-plans along with SC/ST Ministers, was absent as he was indisposed.

Social Welfare Minister P. Satyanarayana, who attended the meeting along with a few other Ministers, told reporters later that the proposals finalised by nodal agencies of the SC and ST sub-plans headed by himself and Tribal Welfare Minister P. Balaraju, would be posed for approval by the State Sub-Plans Council for which the Chief Minister was the chairman, at its meeting on Saturday.