The Congress-led dispensation in Punjab rolled out the much-awaited smartphone scheme within the state on Wednesday, with distributing free cellular handsets to some class 12 college students of presidency faculties.
The scheme noticed mild of the day greater than three years after the Congress got here to energy within the state.
Giving free smartphones to the youth of the state was one of many key ballot guarantees of the Congress throughout the 2017 meeting elections.
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh launched the ‘Punjab Sensible Join Scheme’ via video conferencing right here.
He handed over smartphones to 6 class 12 college students in a symbolic gesture. Simultaneous distribution of telephones was accomplished at 26 locations by varied ministers, MLAs and others throughout the state.
Every minister personally handed over 20 telephones to college students in varied districts to mark the launch of the scheme.
The scheme will profit 1,74,015 class 12 college students of presidency faculties within the first part which can be accomplished by November this yr.
A complete of 1.11 lakh beneficiaries of the scheme are from rural areas.
Among the many 1,74,015 class 12 college students being coated beneath the primary part, 94,832 belong to the Scheduled Caste class and 36,555 are OBC.
Talking on this event, the CM mentioned individuals imagine within the guarantees listed within the election manifesto and it was, thus, his responsibility to make sure the implementation of every certainly one of them.
The smartphone being distributed beneath the scheme is an effective useful cellphone, the CM mentioned, including that it’ll change into a serious device for the training of the scholars.
Earlier talking on this event, Training Minister Vijay Inder Singla mentioned a sum of Rs 92 crore was being spent on procuring these smartphones.