Free laptops for 1.5 lakh UG, diploma students

Bengaluru: The state government 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 Rs. 2.5 lakh a year are eligible to receive the free laptops. The market price of each laptop is Rs. 22,000 and the government has procured it at Rs. 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, Siddaramaiah announced free laptops to 1.5 lakh engineering, medical, polytechnic, and first-grade college students at an estimated cost of Rs. 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.