Maharashtra govt to support education expenses of college students who lost parents to COVID-19

"As many as 931 undergraduates and 228 postgraduate students of various government colleges have lost both their parents to the COVID-19 pandemic. The government will pay their fees for the entire course," the Minister said.

Maharashtra govt to support education expenses of college students who lost parents to COVID-19

Maharashtra Minister Chandrakant Patil has announced that the state government will take care of the education expenses of the college students who have lost both their parents to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Maharashtra higher and technical education minister was answering a question by Congress legislator Shirish Chaudhary on the floor of the state Assembly. 

"As many as 931 undergraduates and 228 postgraduate students of various government colleges have lost both their parents to the COVID-19 pandemic. The government will pay their fees for the entire course," Patil said.
The minister further said that "the decision will cost the state exchequer more than Rs 2 crore annually, and there will be no need for the state government to pass a similar decision every year."

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government has announced that it will take an INR 4,000 crore loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to set up medical colleges in 12 districts. While the proposal for the same had been approved earlier, due to the lack of funds, no progress was made on the same. At present, the 12 districts don't have any operating medical colleges.

On August 20, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had called meeting of the Medical Education department, which was also attended by the representatives of the Asian Development Bank. There are 12 districts in the state without a single medical college. They have been approved for certain places, however, without any progress. Thus, Asian Development Bank has agreed to provide monetary help to set up these colleges.

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