Amaravati: Free sanitary pads for girl students

Amaravati: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy directed the officials to distribute branded sanitary napkins to the girl students from seventh to twelfth class in the government educational institutions for free.

During the review meeting at camp office here on Friday, the Chief Minister instructed the officials to lay more focus on the health and hygiene of the girls and added that the state government would launch the distribution of free sanitary napkins on March 8 coinciding with International Women's Day.

The officials said tenders would be completed by April 15 and MoUs will be made between reputed companies and MEPMA and SERP by end of April. The sanitary napkins will be distributed to all girls in Government schools, junior colleges and Gurukul schools from July 1.

Each girl will be given 10 sanitary napkins per month totalling to 120 napkins per annum. The Government would spend Rs 41.4 crore per annum for this scheme. SERP and MEPMA will sign MoUs with reputed companies to ensure branded sanitary napkins are made available at Cheyutha Grocery shops at affordable prices.

The Chief Minister instructed the officials to provide best coaching to girls for competitive exams. He wanted an action plan to be made by taking the help of reputed coaching centres which could provide the best coaching by utilising the laptops provided to the students by the government.

He instructed the officials to complete the process of receiving options from students for laptops under the Ammavodi scheme. He said the coaching should be interactive, using technology and laptops with the help of selected professional support.

The action plan should ensure that the programme will be utilised by a maximum number of students. He instructed the officials to prepare a plan by the time students would be given laptops on how to use it effectively for maximum benefits.

Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das, Higher Education, Skill Development Special Chief Secretary Satish Chandra, School Education Principal Secretary Budithi Rajasekhar, Municipal and Urban Development Principal Secretary Y Srilakshmi, Women and Child Welfare Principal Secretary AR Anuradha, and others were present.