Bangalore: Another U-turn: Now excursion for students of all sections
Bangalore, Nov 17 (DHNS): In another U-turn, the Congress government on Saturday decided to extend the facility of government-sponsored annual excursion to students of all castes/religions.
The Tourism department, in its revised order, stated that in the current academic year, students of classes eight, nine and 10 in government schools would be taken on tours for four days. From 30 districts, 13,500 students would be selected and Rs 3,500 would be spent on each student. In all, the Tourism department will spend Rs 4.72 crore for the tour programmes in a year.
The selection of students should be made by the Education department. There will be no caste factor involved in the selection of students, according to Tourism Minister R V Deshpande.
The Siddaramaiah government’s decision to provide the free educational tour facility only to students belonging to backward classes and minorities had faced severe flak.
The government has been giving such facility for SC/ST children for many years. The Opposition parties argued that there should be no discrimination among children.