Bhubaneswar, July 30: Higher education minister Pradeep Panigrahi today announced that laptops that had not been distributed for the last two academic years to meritorious students would be distributed by August 12.
As many as 15,203 students are yet to receive laptops. While 15,000 laptops of 2014-15 are pending, 203 laptops from the session 2013-14 are yet to be given to the students.
"The laptops could not be distributed last year because of some technical and procedural delay. All of them will be distributed by August 12," said Panigrahi today.
"The laptops for this academic year - 2015-16 - will be distributed in October," he said.
The minister said Odisha Computer Application Centre would distribute laptops to the shortlisted candidates.
The scheme to distribute laptops was introduced two years ago under the Biju Yuva Shashaktikaran Yojana, an initiative under the Odisha Youth Policy of 2013. The scheme aims to distribute laptops to meritorious Plus Two students, including 3,500 for Arts, 5,000 for science, 1,500 for commerce and 100 for vocational education students in the general category. In the reserved category, the scheme provides for 2,500 laptops for Arts, 2,000 for science, 500 for commerce and 100 for vocational education students in the reserved category.
As many as 14,797 laptops were distributed among meritorious student in the inaugural year. However, a disagreement between the IT and higher education departments over the procurement of laptops apparently led to the delay.
The delay in laptop distribution has irked both students and parents who expressed their grievance before chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who had decided that the higher education department would prepare the list of meritorious students and make necessary budgetary allocation for this. Likewise, the IT department would float tenders for procuring the laptops and distribute it within a stipulated time.
The Council of Higher Secondary Education has been asked to submit names of 15,000 meritorious students every year.
