Punjab Govt hikes allowance for blind students

Chandigarh, Jul 23 (UNI) The Punjab Government today decided to enhance the allowance for the visually impaired students of the Blind School Jamalpur in Ludhiana district from Rs 600 to Rs 1200 per child per month with immediate effect.

A decision to this effect was taken in a meeting held here under the chairmanship of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal as a follow up action to the recent visit of Mr Badal to the Brail Bhawan, Jamalpur on July 17.

Mr Badal also asked the Secretary Water and Sanitation to immediately undertake the work to provide safe drinking water at a cost of Rs 12.85 lakh in the institute for blind students by the end of October.

The Chief Minister also asked the Chief Secretary to send a team of senior officers to visit the institute of visually impaired in Dehradun to seek expert advice for the upgradation of Brail Bhawan thereby increasing its intake capacity to 500 visually impaired students.

He also directed the Finance Department to immediately release a sum of Rs 40 lakh for the installation of new brail press and a digital studio in the institute. Besides he also agreed in principle to upgrade the existing high school to 10+2 level.

The Chief Minister also deputed Director Sports to visit the Institute and prepared a detailed plan for the development and expansion of existing play grounds.

He asked the Mayor, Municipal Corporation Ludhiana to construct a foot over bridge at a cost of Rs 75 lakh across the Ludhiana-Chandigarh highway to ensure easy access to the visually impaired children to the institute.

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