Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath assured the children orphaned by COVID-19 that the state government would take care of their education and provide other essentials required for living a respectable life,
After listening to the speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during which he felicitated destitute children of the novel coronavirus pandemic from PM Cares Fund, the chief minister interacted with children in Gorakhnath temple on Monday.
Yogi enquired about their well-being and motivated them to study hard, saying knowledge was the only light that could dispel the darkness of ignorance.
“Do not worry about your studies. This government is with you. It is the government's responsibility to ensure that you have quality education," Yogi told 11 students from Gorakhpur who took part in the function and listened to the prime minister's speech.
The chief minister directed Gorakhpur District Magistrate Vijay Kiran Anand and District Probation Officer Sarvjit Singh to ensure that the affected children did not face problems.
Yogi also handed out gifts like school bags, lunch boxes, water bottles and reading material to these children.
A total of 441 children of the state have been benefited by the PM Cares Fund scheme, including 11 children of Gorakhpur. Of these 11 children, two are girls.
As per the government scheme, COVID-19 orphaned children below the age of 18 years or more would get Rs 10 lakh under this scheme, whereas children below 18 years of age will be provided Rs 4 to 9 lakh. This money will be remitted in the accounts of the beneficiaries in case they are aged 18 years or above while in the case of children below the age of 18 years, the amount will be deposited in the form of fixed deposit till they attain adulthood.
Incidentally, there are 16,260 children who lost either one or both parents to COVID-19.
Under the Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana, Rs 4,000 per month is being provided to 11,049 affected children. Whereas under Mukhyamantri Bal Seva Yojana Rs 2,500 is being given per month to 5,211 children.
“The Yogi government has also provided laptops to 116 children who were orphaned by COVID-19 period in Gorakhpur and are studying in class 9 or above,” a government spokesman said.
