The High Court of Karnataka on Friday directed the State government to device a mechanism to ensure that eligible visually challenged students get the benefit of the scheme of distributing talking laptops as per the scheme launched in 2014.
Observing that there is no proper mechanism to inform about the existence of the scheme of distributing talking laptops to students of class 10 and pre-university course, the court said a comprehensive mechanism involving block education officers, authorities of schools and pre-university colleges, and other government officials was required to be put in place to ensure that students get the benefit of the scheme.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Sachin Sankar Magadum issued the direction during the hearing of a PIL petition filed by Umapathi S., a city-based advocate.
Referring to data of the scheme submitted by the government, the Bench observed that budgetary allocation as well as the number of students given talking laptops were on the decline since 2015. This was because of lack of information about the existence of such a scheme among parents and students, the Bench observed.
The petitioner had contended that there was no proper implementation of the scheme as no talking laptops were distributed in 2018–19 and 2019–20 despite budgetary allocation.
