UP chief minister, Akhilesh Yadav, fulfilled yet another promise that he had made to voters in his party’s election manifesto on Monday when he distributed about 10,000 free laptops to students who had passed intermediate examinations last year.
“We have always believed in doing what we say and we had promised laptops and we are giving them today. The power of this new technology to the youth will diminish the digital divide and our brothers and sisters need not suffer from any inferiority complex just because they cannot afford to buy a laptop,” he said while addressing a function to give out the laptops.
The chief minister pointed out that the Internet was the most significant development with far-reaching consequence and told the students that “Armed with these laptops, you can access a whole new world Please take full advantage of this window of opportunity. It will help you to equip yourself for the changing needs of the job market.”
Mr Akhilesh Yadav admitted that when the project for free laptops was being prepared, many people had their apprehensions. “Nobody expected that the Samajwadi Party would talk about laptops and English but we are simply keeping pace with changing times even though the opposition ridiculed us,” he said.
The free laptop scheme has cost the state government `2,800 crores with each laptop costing `19,500.
He pointed out that computers and internet had changed everything — whether it was government functioning or in the field of education.
The chief minister, while talking about another flagship programme of his government which is the unemployment allowance, said that the unemployment allowance was not a solution but merely a stop gap arrangement and the purpose was to generate more jobs.
The chief minister himself gave away laptops to about 50 students (out of the total of 10,000 in Lucknow) but the total number of beneficiaries under this scheme is over 15 lakh students. The scheme, which also includes distribution of tablets to students who pass class 10, is designed to target the youth that voted in large numbers for the Samajwadi Party in the last year’s Assembly elections.
The laptops have been purchased by the Uttar Pradesh Electronics Corp-oration Limited (UPELC) which had entered into an agreement with Hewlett Packard (HP) for supplying nearly 15 lakh laptops for free distribution.