Students will have to wait longer for laptops

Students of government degree colleges and other professional courses in government colleges for the 2018-2019 academic year will have to wait to get the free laptops that were promised to them by the government.

For the current academic year, the Department of Collegiate Education (DCE) has received only ₹90 crore to provide laptops to 1.5 lakh students, and is short by ₹280 crore.

Higher Education Minister G.T. Deve Gowda said that the department has requested the State government for more funds.

Even students from the previous 2017-2018 academic year have not received their laptops. N. Manjula, Commissioner of DCE, said that a fresh tender will have to be called for the laptops to be procured for the previous academic year.

Although the State government had allocated ₹200 crore for this initiative, the project which was slated to be implemented under the previous Congress government has faced many hurdles.

The tender (for the 2017-18 academic year) was initially delayed as a house committee was formed to look into the matter after the former Commissioner of DCE M.N. Ajay Nagabhushan had objected to floating a tender with four packages.

At the time, he wrote to the then Chief Secretary stating that a single tender for the laptops should be called. He argued that a calling for a tender in four packages would lead to huge cost variations and increase the cost per laptop.

When a tender was finally called earlier this year, there were no bidders. The tender had to be closed, said Ms. Manjula.

Students on the other hand are disappointed with the developments.

Ajay Kamath, Bengaluru district secretary of the All India Democratic Students Organisation, said that the new State government was delaying all the pro-student projects announced before the Assembly elections.

“We demand that the State government seriously looks into all student promises and fulfil them at the earliest for the benefit of the student community,” he said.