Saswat Swain and Chandrasekhar Panda with their Rs 5,000 laptop. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, March 24: Saswat Swain and Chandrasekhar Panda, the young techies who came up with twin innovations of designing a Rs 5,000-laptop and a Rs 1,300-data card, today quit their computer projects in the state.

Although they had once received a lot of attention, they failed to get support from the state government.

“It has been an extremely frustrating journey and we are calling it quits,” said Panda. The students from Biju Pattnaik University of Technology have now decided to take up regular jobs.

“For the past one year, we have been giving our best to make this concept a reality. The basic motto behind this product was to help the poor rural youth get a laptop. This project, we believed, would help increase the standard of primary education in the state as well as the country,” said Panda.

The two even met IT minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi, IT secretary P.K. Jena and IAS and chief secretary B.K. Patnaik.

“There has been no dearth of appreciation. All of them promised to help. But, it ended there. Despite repeated efforts from our side, chief minister Naveen Patnaik did not even bother to spare some time for us,” said Swain.

Disappointed by the state government, the two had tried to draw the attention of the Central government.

“People associated with such projects questioned the credibility of our project. They underestimated us, asking how we could design this product when IIT-ians failed to come up with something like this. When our state government failed to recognise and encourage us, what could we expect from others,” said Swain.

The students have been approached by MLAs and ministers from Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Jharkhand with offers to initiate the project in their respective states. There have also been a number of proposals from private parties.

However, the duo have decided not to go ahead with it. “When our state-grown technology seems to be of no use to our state, then why elsewhere. Also, if we proceed with the private players, the price of the laptop will shoot up and ultimately the very aim behind the project will get defeated,” said Swain.

The duo hail from middle-class families and had even floated a company — I WEBLEAF global solutions — by investing their own money.

“We feel that its practical to go for regular jobs instead of struggling in an environment where everybody talks, but nobody bothers,” said swain.

The two will soon leave the state to take up regular jobs at IT companies.