Govt gives green signal to resume free bicycle distribution but with some riders

Mangaluru: The Karnataka state government which put a brake on distribution of bicycles citing poor quality in November last year, has again ordered to resume distribution of bicycles. However, it has put out certain riders to be followed before and after distribution.
The distribution of cycles were reportedly put on hold three months ago by chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, who had asked to stop the distribution of bicycles, as some elected representatives had questioned about the quality of bicycles during a review meeting.

Tourism minister Sa Ra Mahesh had expressed that cycles distributed under the government are of poor quality, and could turn into scrap in few months. Chief minister H D Kumaraswamy then instructed the department of primary and secondary education to stop the distribution of cycles and conduct a quality check of the bicycles. Based on the CM’s directions, the quality of the bicycles was checked.

Karnataka spends Rs 185 crore every year to give bicycles free-of-cost to 5.1 lakh students of government high schools. Of the 5.1 lakh beneficiaries, around 18 per cent of the bicycles could not be delivered because the government wanted to assess its quality. However, the government decided to continue the scheme after it found the bicycles to be fit to use, following several tests. The quality check report which was out in December, pointed out that the supplied bicycles are of a good quality. It was submitted by Research and Development Centre for Bicycle and Sewing Machines, Ludhiana.

Y Shivaramaiah, DDPI, Dakshina Kannada, said that a total number of 13, 167 cycles were sanctioned for free distribution, and only half of it was distributed to high schools before November. However, in Puttur and Bantwal, which has the highest number of students, all the cycles were not distributed, and it was put on hold when it was time for distributing cycles to beneficiaries. As a result, 6,000 cycles were gathering dust. “We have now received a go ahead for distribution, but it has some conditions to be followed, which will be adhered to,” he added.

Schools will start distributing bicycles after constituting three-member committees in each school, which includes the school SDMC president, headmaster and a government employee.

Conditions to distribute free bicycles

# Should make already distributed bicycles road worthy wherever necessary, on the request of the departmental officials.

#Cycle distributors must supply one tool kit for each school. It will help to repair bicycles in case of any breakdown

# Conduct service camps within six months of distributing bicycles.

# Before distribution, suppliers, BEOs and DDPIs should ensure roadworthiness of the bicycles which are yet to be distributed

# Distributors must obtain the date of delivery to the schools with headmasters signature and seal in delivery acknowledgement, and the same will be submitted to the office along with the invoice.