ONGOLE: Markapuram Ram Bhupal Reddy, a retired school headmaster from Giddalur, Prakasam, has used his retirement benefits not to build a house or to fund a comfortable lifestyle, but on ensuring that young girl students get scholarships under the ‘Sukanya Samrudhi Yojana’.
He deposited Rs 25.71 lakh from his benefits at the Yadavalli post office to open Sukanya Samrudhhi Yojana accounts for 88 girls over the age of 10 years. The interest amount of Rs 41,000 will be equally distributed and deposited in all the 88 accounts every three months till the girls attain 21 years. Even when he was a teacher, he offered his services for various welfare programs in the villages where he worked.
He distributed new clothes to students on the occasion of festivals and extended financial support to many who came from a poor backgrounds by paying their fees. He also provided his students snacks and milk during the midday meals and bore the expenses out of his pocket. To encourage teachers to perform better, Ram Bhupal Reddy had mooted and helped conduct a grand felicitation function to reward 6,300 subject-teachers of schools, which got cent per cent results in the SSC public exams. The programme continued for four years uninterruptedly.
For his contributions to education, Ram Bhupal Reddy received four awards from three chief ministers of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh--YS Rajasekhar Reddy, N Chandrababu Naidu and Kiran Kumar Reddy.
During his long tenure as the leader of Kurnool District Teachers’ Union, he conducted workshops and meetings to help teachers improve their expertise in their subjects, and even helped resolve their issues at district-level.
“Throughout my service, I saw many girls dropping out of school as their parents were poor and could not afford to continue their daughters’ education. This disturbed me, after which I decided to do whatever was in my power to help such students. This is why I deposited my retirement benefits to open the SSY accounts for 88 girls who come from a poor background,” the former HM told TNIE. The SSY account passbooks were handed over to all the 88 students by MLA Anna Ramababu at Bhupal Reddy’s superannuation function held at the Yadavalli ZP High School recently.