Amaravati: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy directed the officials to distribute branded company's sanitary napkins to the girl students from seventh to twelfth class in government educational institutions for free.

During the review meeting at the camp office here Friday, the Chief Minister instructed the officials to lay more focus on the health and hygiene of the girls and added that the state government would launch the distribution of free sanitary napkins on March 8 coinciding with International Women's Day.

The officials said tenders would be completed by April 15 and MoUs will be made between reputed companies and MEPMA and SERP by end of April. The sanitary napkins will be distributed to all girls in Government schools, junior colleges, and Gurukul schools from July 1 and each girl will be given 10 sanitary napkins per month totalling 120 napkins per annum. The Government would spend Rs 41.4 crore per annum for this scheme. SERP and MEPMA will sign MOUs with reputed companies to ensure branded Sanitary napkins are made available at Cheyutha Grocery shops at affordable prices.

The Chief Minister instructed the officials to provide the best coaching to girls for competitive exams. He said to prepare an action plan to take the help of reputed coaching centers along with the laptops provided to them by the government for best coaching. He instructed the officials to complete the process of receiving options from students for laptops under the Ammavodi scheme. He said the coaching should be interactive, using technology and laptops with the help of selected professional support. He said the action plan should ensure that the programme will be utilized by a maximum number of students. He instructed the officials to prepare a plan by the time students would be given a laptop on how to use it effectively for maximum benefits.

Chief Secretary Adityanath Das, Higher Education, Skill Development Special Chief Secretary Satish Chandra, School Education Principal Secretary Budithi Rajasekhar, Municipal and Urban Development Principal Secretary Y Srilakshmi, Women and Child Welfare Principal Secretary AR Anuradha, Medical and Health Principal Secretary Anil Kumar Singh Panchayati Raj, Rural Development Special Chief Secretary Gopalakrishna Dwivedi, Social Welfare Principal Secretary K Sunita, Health and Family Welfare Commissioner Katamaneni Bhaskar, Finance Secretary Kartikeya Mishra, Women, and Child Welfare Director Kritika Shukla, School Education Commissioner V Chinaveerabhadrudu, APSCHE Chairman K Hemachandra Reddy and other senior officials were present.