PANAJI: The Goa IT Professionals (GITP) have dismissed the State government’s ‘Goa Yuva Samvaad Yojana’, a recently introduced scheme that offers free call talk time and mobile internet connectivity to youths for 100 minutes per month, as an “election gimmick at taxpayers’ cost.”
In a press statement released here, Ms. Sangeeta Naik of GITP have disregarded Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar’s claim that the scheme will prepare students for the IT sector.
“With broadband internet being around for more than a decade, lakhs of Goans would have been employable by now in the IT industry. Without built-in filters and mechanisms, this scheme is bound to be misused for wasteful things like games, pornography, etc.,” the statement said.
The GITP advised the government to learn from the neighbouring States that have created IT jobs without any such scheme.
It also said the CM is not concerned about the dilapidated state of computer laboratories in schools, due to which, Goan youths have been graduating without understanding computers. It has demanded computer systems with functioning internet connectivity in computer labs and local libraries, as an “effective and focused promotion of technology for student community.”
