CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has ordered to increase the financial assistance to differently abled students in schools and colleges.

On July 14, the Chief Minister had doubled the educational assistance to differently abled students by allocating Rs 14,90,52,000​​.

Now, according to a Daily Thanthi report, the educational aid for differently abled school students in classes 1 to 5 has been doubled from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000. For classes 6 to 8, the fund has been hiked from Rs 3,000 to Rs 6,000, and for classes 9 to 12, it has increased from Rs 4,000 to Rs 8,000 per year.

For college students pursuing undergraduate degrees, the financial assistance has been raised from Rs 6,000 to Rs 12,000, and for the students of postgraduate courses and vocational studies, it has been doubled from Rs 7,000 to Rs 14,000.

The differently abled students have also been encouraged to engage in research studies. To promote this, a total of Rs 50 lakh has been allocated under the Chief Minister Research Fellowship (CMRF) Scheme to support 50 students, each of whom will receive Rs 1 lakh.

Earlier, the Chief Minister also introduced a scheme for differently abled people to travel on government buses without any fee.