PUDUCHERRY: Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy on Monday announced that laptops would be provided to Class 12 students of government schools.
While delivering his address at the Puducherry Liberation Day function at Gandhi Tidal on Monday, he said that the government had decided to provide the laptops after realising the difficulties faced by students from poor families to attend online classes.
With all classes reopening from November 8, the government will resume the midday meals for school students, he said. The government has decided to take over the Cooperative School at Lingareddipalayam run by the management of Lingareddipalayam Sugar Mills, which is now defunct.
Under a scheme for providing financial relief to the kin of Covid victims, Rs 50,000 is provided from the Chief Minister’s Covid relief fund. In addition, Rs 50,000 will be provided to the families of Covid victims through the Department of Revenue and Disaster Management, he said.
With roads in a damaged condition all over Puducherry, the Chief Minister assured that after the end of the North-East Monsoon, rehabilitation work will be taken up. In the first phase, Rs 33 crores will be released from the MLA local area development fund. Listing several works to tackle inundation during the rainy season, improvement of storm drains and culverts, he said that all the work will be completed this year.
He said that as Puducherry is seeing heavy tourist inflow during weekends, tourism infrastructure will be further strengthened to transform it from a weekend destination to a week-long destination.
So far, about 70 percent of the population in the Union territory has been vaccinated. Stating that medical opinion has suggested that the cause of most of the deaths is non-vaccination, he appealed to those who have not been vaccinated till now to get vaccinated without fear or hesitation.
With festivals fast approaching, he appealed to the people to adopt Covid appropriate behaviour to celebrate in a safe manner.