Bengaluru: The government school kids, who have been waiting to get those shiny black shoes have been left disappointed. Their ‘Shoe-socks bhagya’ has turned into ‘Chappal bhagya’ as of now, thanks to the government, which says getting measurements of over 50 lakh students is going to be a herculean task.
So, what has the government planned to do instead. Well, the government school kids will now get chappals instead.
Don’t Chappals need measurements? Primary and Secondary Education Minister Kimmane Rathnakar has an answer.
“We will give them chappals with Velcro belts, which are adjustable in case of slight variation. But with shoes adjusting the sizes is not possible,” opines the Minister.
However, the Department of Education has a different version to this drastic change.
The sources in the department say that it was not the size or the measurement that mattered but it was the ‘shoestring’ budget which actually brought about the change in the entire scheme.
When the scheme was announced by the Chief Minister in his 2015-16 annual budget, the amount set aside for providing free shoes and socks was Rs120 crore. But, when the department contacted various companies for the price list, the cost incurred went up to Rs 170 crore. Instead of taking an additional burden of Rs 50 cr, the government thought of ‘adjusting’ the cost with a velcro belt.
“There are over 54.54 lakh children studying between classes 1 and 10 in government schools across the state. The original plan was to provide one pair of shoes and two sets of socks.
However, the Minister has said that the decision to opt for chappals is not final. “We may give a stipulated amount to the students to buy themselves a pair of shoes,” said the Minister.
