By IANS,
Chandigarh: In a bid to encourage students of Haryana to perform well academically, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda Monday honoured meritorious students and announced various schemes to boost the education system in the state.
Around 131 students were awarded cash awards ranging from Rs.11,000 to Rs.500,000 during the ceremony that was held at Hooda’s residence here.
“These brilliant students are the brand ambassadors of Haryana. We have realised the fact that only those states would prosper in future that would lay emphasis on education. Efforts have been made to ensure that no student remains illiterate in Haryana,” Hooda said.
He added: “The state government will provide free textbooks to students studying in classes 9 to 12 in government schools from next year. It would benefit 400,000 students and cost the state exchequer Rs.13 crore per annum.”
Felicitated students included toppers of various entrance exams like civil services examination, Indian engineering services, science olympiads, combined admission test, engineering and medical entrance exams and students of board classes of eight, 10 and 12.
Hooda said the Rajiv Gandhi Education City was fast coming up in Sonepat district, around 60 km from Delhi, where foreign universities would also set up their units.
Winner of the Rs.500,000 cash award was Nitin Jain, who had won gold medal at the International olympiad in astronomy and astrophysics.
He was also given another award of Rs.100,000 for his outstanding performance in the All India Engineering Entrance Exam (AIEEE) and in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) exam.