Barely within six months of its inception, the State government has decided to discontinue with one of its flagship schemes, Goa Yuva Samvad Yojana (GYSY) from June 30 onwards, resulting in a saving of Rs 25 crore a year.
the goan I networkrPANAJI r rThe scheme, which was launched with much fanfare by former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar, was withdrawn through an SMS to the beneficiaries which simply read – “Govt of Goa has decided to withdraw the GYSY scheme which you have enrolled for w.e.f. June 30, 23:59 hrs.” rSpeaking to mediapersons, Minister for IT Rohan Khaunte informed that, “Nearly 55,000 SIM cards were distributed to Goan youth under this scheme. Of these, only 33,000 were found to be activated, while 19,000 were never activated by the youth. As a result, though there was no usage, the State government was paying the company.” r“The yearly budget of the scheme was Rs 25 crore, which was unwanted. So the scheme for existing as well as new users has been stopped. Till date, we have paid them Rs 1.75 crore. Now we have various companies which are offering free data. Then why has the government got to pay?” he said. rHe also informed that they also received various complaints from parents with regard to the misuse of the SIM cards. r“We received different complaints from parents that the cards are being misused, youth have been asking them for a second phone, among others. Secondly, we didn’t get any qualitative and quantitative analysis on how the cards are being used,” he said. rThe government, on December 5 last year, had rolled out GYSY for youth in the age group of 16 to 30 years. Under this scheme, every registered beneficiary youth was entitled to get a free monthly pack comprising free local 100 minutes voice calls, free 3 GB 3G or 4G data pack with 2 mbps download speed and a one-time free SIM card. Additionally, Vodafone, which was the successful bidder, had announced to add e-wallet facility for the beneficiaries. The scheme was expected to benefit about 1.25 lakh youth in the State. rSpeaking further, Khaunte informed, “When we talk about Digital India, digital literacy is more important. And when we look at IT culture, it is not only the youth but various cross sections that have to be targeted for which we need to have knowledge centres and digital literacy initiatives.”
