Gujarat assembly sees heated debate over non-distribution of 1.45 lakh bicycles to girl students

Gandhinagar: The BJP and Congress engaged in a heated debate in the assembly on Thursday after the Gujarat government said nearly 1.45 lakh bicycles could not be distributed to girl students over the last two years.

While the government said several bicycles got rusted due to rain and it took time to spruce them up, Congress blamed it on corruption and said the delay forced lakhs of girls to walk to their schools.

Responding to questions concerning the Saraswati Sadhana Yojana, state Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi informed the House that as of December 2024, nearly 1.45 lakh bicycles remained to be handed over to girls for the calendar years of 2023 and 2024.

The Social Justice and Empowerment Department, responsible for the distribution, stated in its written reply that not a single bicycle was distributed between January 2023 and January 2024 and that only 8,494 cycles were handed over between January 2024 and January 2025.

Under the Saraswati Sadhana scheme, the state government provides bicycles to girls from Scheduled Class and Other Backward Classes upon their admission in Class 9 in government-run secondary schools.

On behalf of the Social Justice and Empower minister, Sanghavi said the government has distributed little over 7.93 lakh bicycles to girl students in the last five years.

However, he admitted that many bicycles could not be distributed as they caught rust due to “excessive rains”.

Responding to a question by Congress MLA Imran Khedawala, Sanghavi said the distribution got delayed because the department undertook restoration of rusted bicycles. He said these bicycles were kept in the open because a godown cannot accommodate lakhs of bicycles.

“Due to excessive rains, these bicycles caught a little rust. Instead of giving such rusted units, we asked the vendor to refurbish them before handing them over to the students. This entire process took some time,” said Sanghavi.

Senior Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar said the bicycles caught rust because they were not distributed to the girl students in time.

Defending the government, Sanghavi said a rigorous technical and physical inspection of the bicycles also consumed time and resulted in the delay.

Congress Legislative Party leader Amit Chavda said lakhs of young girls were forced to walk to their schools and back because the government failed to provide them bicycles as promised.

He alleged that corruption in procurement and delivery of sub-standard cycles led to rusting and delay in distribution. He also claimed that tender norms were changed to suit some specific companies.

“Officials of GRIMCO, which procures bicycles for the government, had cautioned that the vendor was charging Rs 500 more per unit. Yet, these bicycles were purchased. However, when a third-party inspection established that these units were substandard, the department did not take delivery, and as a result, they gathered rust in the open,” he said.

Sanghavi said the government paid more because the bicycles have some add-ons, such as front baskets to put school bags and ISI-mark reflectors for greater safety. He assured the House that there would not be any delay in giving these bicycles from this academic year.

Speaker Shankar Chaudhary also asked the government to ensure that the girl students are given the bicycles in time.