Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan is leaving no stone unturned to woo the people of Madhya Pradesh. He will soon give away smart phones to 3.75 lakh students.
According to the official information, it has been decided that smart phones will be given to the students studying in first year of the government colleges under the Department of Higher Education. The State cabinet has approved the plan for the expenditure up to Rs 154 crore for the year 2017-18 to 2019-2020.
The scheme will help the students to overcome the difficulties in the studies by obtaining new information using the internet and other softwares.
Notably, the Higher Education Department has completed the tender process through MPSEDC. Based on the specifications and through the tender process, a mobile company has quoted the cost of one mobile handset for Rs 6,795. It is to be noted that four companies had quoted different prices for mobile handsets in the tender process.
Based on the current prices quoted by the company ie Rs 6,795, total 1.85 lakh students will be given smart phones in one academic year. It is possible that the total expenditure of smart phones to be distributed to the students will be more than Rs 240 crores.
The State cabinet had set and approved the expenditure limit under the Smartphone scheme. But the amount spent on smart phones is greater than the amount sanctioned. The reason behind it is that the students of the state had demanded the handset with advanced specifications from Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan. The Department of Higher Education has initiated correspondence with the Finance Department for the approval of the State Council for the increased amount.
CM desires to distribute the smart phones in the last week of August for the academic year 2017-18. He has instructed to distribute the smart phones with new features and advanced specifications. Besides, it has also been instructed to the principles of government colleges to complete the distribution of smart phones for academic year 2016-17 by July 14.
Notably, the price of smart phones distributed in years 2014-2017 was Rs 2195. Besides, the smart phones will be given to students who have 75% of attendance.