Budget pulls plug on free laptop scheme
A senior official from the Higher Education Department said though the government had not scrapped the scheme officially, authorities were clueless about when the distribution would resume
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CHENNAI: With the Tamil Nadu budget for FY25 failing to earmark funds for the free student laptops, the scheme is unlikely to take off this year too, even as the beneficiary waitlist swells to over 20 lakh.
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 2011-2012 and 2019-2020 (till February). After the scheme came to a grinding halt, over 15 lakh government school students have been waiting for it to restart. By the end of this academic year, the numbers would rise to 20 lakh.
A senior official from the Higher Education Department said though the government had not scrapped the scheme officially, authorities were clueless about when the distribution would resume. “As the laptop scheme could not find a place in the State budget, it is unlikely to be implemented this year. The government has to allocate at least Rs 2,500 crore (as per earlier estimates) to implement the project and fill the backlog to an extent,” he added.
The official pointed out that the price of laptops – with new configurations – has gone up, which might not be feasible for the government since it has to implement several new projects.
Since the School Education Department plans to increase desktop computers in high-tech labs in schools to compensate for the scheme, he stated, “Students in schools and colleges prefer laptops, as it is easy to carry and access from anywhere.”
The officials in the department, however, exuded hope that the laptop scheme would be continued when the flow of government funds becomes normal.
