the goan I network
PANAJI
Speaking to media persons, current forum president Siddharth Naik and past president Mandar Manjarekar said there were five dealers who were being awarded tenders for the scheme that distributes free laptops to students of Standard 11 and 12.
“The laptops that students receive are of configurations that are required for standard fourth and fifth and are of no use in standard 12. This type of configuration of laptop is useless and therefore they are bartered or sold or exchanged. It has been found that students resell their laptops for a price between Rs 10,000 and Rs 12,000 in the market,” said Manjarekar.
He also said the number of laptops supplied had increased by three times from 15,000 to 45,000. Of these 45,000, the forum has alleged that around 83 percent of the supply of laptops for the scheme is handled by five dealers.
To overcome the configuration issue, a decision was taken to modify the scheme to ensure that students of standards 11 and above get laptops with the
configuration of their choice from the dealer of their choice.
In a letter of representation made to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, the forum has urged the CM to eliminate middle men involved in the distribution of the laptops. They have also asked for an assessment or audit into the impact of the scheme.
“It has been well over 15 years since this student welfare scheme was introduced, however, no assessment or audit of the impact of this scheme has ever been conducted till date. More and more laptops have been dumped in houses with some having more than four to five units. Such welfare schemes in reality should be limited to students coming from Below Poverty Line families and the downtrodden and not to the well off at the cost of the exchequer,” said Naik.
