Ahead of the Legislative Assembly elections in April–May this year, the governing Congress in the State will distribute 1.5 lakh laptops to undergraduate and diploma students belonging to poor families of all castes.
Students of families whose income is below ₹2.5 lakh a year are eligible to receive the free laptops. The market price of each laptop is ₹ 22,000 and the government has procured it at ₹14,500 each.
A legislature committee looking into lapses in the procurement of laptops recently allowed the government to go ahead with the process.
As a token gesture, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday distributed laptops to a few students of Bengaluru Urban district at a function held at the Banquet Hall of the Vidhana Soudha. District in-charge Ministers would distribute laptops in their respective districts.
In his 2017–18 budget, Mr. Siddaramaiah announced free laptops to 1.5 lakh engineering, medical, polytechnic, and first-grade college students at an estimated cost of ₹300 crore. Legislative Council chairman D.H. Shankaramurthy set up the legislature committee headed by Congress MLC K.C. Kondaiah, after MLCs flagged irregularities in the free laptop scheme during the recent Belagavi legislature session.
Higher Education Minister Basavaraj Rayaraddi and Social Welfare Minister H. Anjaneya were among those present.
