After launching the skill development allowance scheme for the educated but unemployed youths as promised ahead of the last Assembly polls, now the Congress-led State Government is going to distribute laptops among the MBBS and engineering students of the weaker sections of the society, particularly SC category students.
This move of the State Government is hearing being seen as an attempt on part of it to woo the youths. However, the State Government has
sanctioned Rs 9 crore to purchase the laptops for the students of the SC category of the society who are pursuing occupational studies like the engineering and medical/ MBBS.
The social welfare department, Uttarakhand, has been handed over the task of providing the laptops to the aforesaid category students of the society. Following directives of the State Government towards implementation of this another ambitious scheme of this Vijay Bahuguna led State Government, the social welfare department has prepared a list of 2,248 beneficiaries of the sc section of the society who belong to different districts of the hill State.
Though the beneficiary identification process is on, some of the districts including Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Uttarkashi, Bageshwar and Champawat have so far not been able to forward names of beneficiaries from their respective areas to the State social
welfare department, as the officials concerned informed.
However, out of the 2,248 students who have been identified for granting the laptops, as many as 150 students belong to Pauri, followed by Tehari with 24, Dehradun with 563, Haridwar with 828, Nainital with 103, Almora with 148, Pithoragarh with 50 and Udham Singh Nagar with 382.
It may recalled that the State Government had got the laptop distribution scheme passed in the recently conducted assembly session. An amount of Rs 9 crore has been sanctioned under this process of purchasing the laptops, said Brahm Pal Singh, Joint Director, the social welfare department, Uttarakhand, while talking to The Pioneer, in an exclusive interview.
As many as 2248 students belonging to the weaker section of the society i.e. the sc category have been identified in the state so far, he informed. When asked about how long now will it take to the social welfare department to execute this ambitious scheme of the Government on the ground, he stated that since the process has already begun and Rs 9 crore has been approved by the Government for purchasing the laptops, therefore as soon as the fund is released to the department, formalities like tendering process will also be followed. “So we hope the laptop distribution scheme will be implemented in due course of time,” he said. No doubt it seems the Congress-led State Government would definitely wish to grant the laptops to the beneficiaries ahead of the general elections which are possibly going to be held in 2014.
But it is to be seen how workable are these popular schemes going to prove for the Congress led State Government in the upcoming general elections in 2014 in which the ruling Congress party would definitely wish to retain all the five lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand.