The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The Gujarat government has told the state assembly that as of December 2024, 1,18,071 bicycles meant for socially and educationally backward class (SEBC) and scheduled caste (SC) students under the Saraswati Sadhana Yojana remain undelivered.
The scheme, which was started by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government with the objective of providing bicycles to class 9 girls for commuting to school, aims to boost the attendance of students from marginalised communities, reported The New Indian Express.
In response to a question by Congress MLA Amit Chavda, the state Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment revealed in the assembly that in 2023, the government demanded 13,300 bicycles for SC students and 98,212 for SEBC.
But the Gujarat Rural Industries Marketing Corporation Ltd. (GRIMC) delivered 6,829 bicycles to SC students and 77,607 to SEBC students, resulting in a shortfall of 6,871 and 20,605 bicycles.
Thereafter, in 2024, the government sought 12,800 bicycles for SC students and 1,05,271 bicycles for SEBC students from the GRIMC, but not a single cycle has been provided.
While the Gujarat government said in the Assembly on Thursday (February 27) that it has distributed most of the pending bicycles from 2023, it admitted that 1,05,271 bicycles for the 2024-25 academic year remain undelivered, stating that distribution will begin once supplies arrive from vendors.
“A company supplying bicycles to Rajasthan at Rs 3,857 per unit sold the same model to Gujarat at Rs 4,444—costing taxpayers an extra Rs 500 per cycle. The total overpayment? A staggering Rs 8.5 crore for 1.70 lakh bicycles,” Congress MLA Chavda further alleged.