Tamil Nadu government’s stalled free laptop scheme yet to take-off
Launched in 2011 as a pet project of former Chief Minister late J Jayalalithaa, 51.67 lakh laptop computers worth Rs 7,257.61 crore were distributed free of cost between the 2011 and 2019 academic year
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CHENNAI: With the free laptop scheme coming to a grinding halt and the Tamil Nadu government remaining tight-lipped on the project, the beneficiaries have swelled to nearly 30 lakh till this new academic year.
Launched in 2011 as a pet project of former Chief Minister late J Jayalalithaa, 51.67 lakh laptop computers worth Rs 7,257.61 crore were distributed free of cost between the 2011 and 2019 academic year.
The free laptops could be availed by the government school students studying in Class XII and candidates in the State-run colleges.
A senior official from the Higher Education Department, seeking anonymity, told DT Next that every year between six and seven lakh students benefit from the free laptop scheme.
“Now the admissions to the school education and higher education in government institutions have increased, the number of beneficiaries to avail free laptops has also increased,” he added.
“Though the present government had tried its level best to distribute free laptop to the students and retain the scheme,” he said, adding that “at present, the prices of the laptops in the international markets have increased almost one and half times and, therefore, the fund allocations might be the difficult aspect to fulfil the backlogs”.
However, the official did not rule out that the free laptop scheme would be scrapped.
Recently, the AIADMK general secretary and former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami also charged the ruling DMK government for not making any announcement regarding the free laptop scheme for the academic year 2024-2025. He also alleged that the State government had stalled the scheme immediately after returning to power in 2021.
PB Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary of State Platform for Common School System-Tamil Nadu also said that there is no doubt that the government should give a clear picture on the laptop scheme whether it would exist or not.
“It has to come out with a clear picture on the scheme as lakhs of students are still waiting,” he said and added that the State government should clear the doubts about whether the scheme is currently operational. He also said that the State, which had the proposal to distribute free ‘Tabs’ to the students, should also announce whether the scheme would be implemented or not.