The schoolkids in Rajasthan are being showered with freebies. The state government has announced to distribute more than one lakh laptops to the meritorious students next year in addition to bicycles to be given to all girls enrolled in class9 onwards so as to curb the dropout rate of girls in government schools.
With elections just a few months away, the chief minister is raining sops to woo all sections of the electorate.
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot announced this on the fourth anniversary of his government on Thursday.
The chief minister said he made the announcements — now and not later — because there would be little time left to implement these decisions if announced in the next budget.
The chief minister said under the Rajiv Gandhi Digital Vidhyarthi Yojana 1,12,600 laptops would be distributed next year to meritorious students studying in class 10 and 12.
This would cost Rs 330 crore to the state exchequer, the chief minister said.
In the last budget, he had announced to distribute laptops to 10,000 meritorious students studying in class 10 and 12 but the number increased to 56,300 last year and the same number to be maintained in this academic year too, he said.
He said the government initially thought of giving 10-inch laptops which would have cost the government Rs 18,000 each but considering the long-term use of computing devices, the government has now decided to distribute 14-inch laptops costing Rs 30,000 per piece.
He hopes to advance computer education and IT in the state through this initiative.
Meritorious students
He also announced scholarships for meritorious students belonging to weaker sections and the income limit for availing this scholarship has also been raised from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh while all girl students who seek admission in ninth class would be given bicycles so that girls can ride to the schools, which may be located far-off from their homes.
Admissions
Besides this, the chief minister also said 1,000 meritorious students belonging to weaker sections would be given admissions at prestigious private schools at the expense of government.
He said students belonging to minorities and economically weaker sections for the higher studies would be given a scholarship of Rs 1,000 per month.
He said the government decided to add a facility of free medical tests in district and government medical colleges from next year in addition to provision of free medicines that was introduced last year.
He increased the war widow pension from Rs 750 to 1500 from next year.
src: deccanherald.com