Gandhinagar (Gujarat) [India], September 6 : Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel has taken an important decision to give a special gift to the teachers of the state who have received the Best Teacher Award, a release said on Saturday.
According to this decision, teachers who have received the Best Teacher Award at the state and national level will be able to travel free of cost for a lifetime in all bus services of Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (ST) across the state and also on routes outside the state where services are available.
Responding sensitively and positively to the representations made by the Gujarat State Awardee Teacher Federation before the Chief Minister, he has taken this important decision.
This decision of providing lifetime free travel to awardee teachers will benefit around 957 state and national award-winning teachers of the state so far. In addition, teachers who receive the State or National Best Teacher Award in the future will also be entitled to this benefit.
Earlier, CM Patel said that vacancies for teachers in schools across the state will be filled promptly.
The Chief Minister was speaking during his interactions with teachers from the remote areas of the State on the occasion of Teachers' Day. He interacted with 37 distinguished teachers from remote areas of 19 districts and recognised them for their outstanding contributions to education.
The teachers said the interaction with the Chief Minister was great encouragement.
"Together with my team, I think for children all the time. We do everything for them. To ensure that the students can utilise the schemes of the government, we are doing our best in schools. So, the Chief Minister invited us here to encourage us. We express our heartfelt gratitude to him," Unnati Patel, a teacher, told ANI.
The Chief Minister extended his greetings for the occasion of Teacher's Day and said that, according to the principle of karma, we must always continue to do good deeds.
"Thanks to teachers' consistent and dedicated efforts, parents are now prioritising enrolling their children in government schools. Teachers remain a source of inspiration for all, and for a child, after God, the most important figures are the mother and the teacher," CM Patel said.