Bhubaneswar, Dec. 11: Nearly 450 laptops meant to be given away to Plus Two students, who excelled in exams in 2014, remain undistributed.

Delay has hit the laptop distribution scheme for the past two years, leading to such a situation. While the results were announced in June 2014, the laptops were distributed in October 10 this year.

All attempts made by the college authorities to inform those students have failed as most of them have moved outside the state to pursue higher education. While 82 laptops are yet to be distributed in Cuttack, 41 in Balasore, 48 in Ganjam and 109 laptops are pending distribution in Khurda, official sources said.

As many as 15,203 laptops were given out to 30 nodal colleges across the state, and of them, only 14,750 laptops have been distributed so far. Every year, the government provides free laptops to top 15,000 students of Plus Two.

"The remaining 453 laptops will be distributed shortly," said a senior official of the higher education department.

BJB Autonomous College principal Mohammed Nawaz Hassan said that despite reminders, the students had not come to the centre to collect their laptops.

"The Plus Two students, who have graduated to degree in our college or any other institute, are quick to respond. But, there are many, who have already moved out of the state, especially to pursue either engineering or medical career, and it is difficult for them to come and collect the laptops from the college," said the principal.

"However, there is a provision that the students can in writing ask their parents or guardians to collect it from the college. We have been trying our best to pass on the information to the students by advertisements in both print and electronic media," he said, adding that as many as 107 laptops were pending distribution at the college.

Earlier this week, chief minister Naveen Patnaik in a review meeting directed the higher education department to ensure timely disbursement of laptops.

In another development, for the students, who passed Plus Two this year, a budget of Rs 30 crore has been placed. The tender has been finalised. These laptops will be distributed by January 2016, informed an official. The scheme to distribute laptops to the meritorious students under the Biju Yuva Shashaktikaran Yojana had been introduced in 2013.

According to the scheme, laptops were to be distributed to the Plus Two meritorious students consisting of 3,500 (arts), 5,000 (science), 1,500 (commerce) and 100 (vocational education) in the general category and 2,500 (arts), 2,000 (science), 500 (commerce) and 100 (vocational education) students in the reserved category.

As many as 14,797 laptops had been distributed among the students in 2013. However, the disagreement between the IT and higher education departments over the procurement of laptops apparently led to the delay in 2014 and 2015.

Subsequently the chief minister had decided that the higher education department would prepare the list of meritorious students and make necessary budgetary allocation towards this and the IT department would float tenders for procuring the laptops and distribute it within a stipulated time.

The Council of Higher Secondary Education prepares the list of 15,000 meritorious students every year. While 15,000 laptops for 2014-15 session were pending, 203 laptops from 2013-14 session remained undistributed.