Ramanathapuram
The government has proposed to distribute free laptops to 15 lakh students during the current academic year and provide internet service to households in 15,524 village panchayats under the ‘Illamthorum Inayam’ scheme, Minister for Information Technology M. Manikandan has said.
Addressing after distributing free bicycles to 5,555 students, including 2,858 girls from 18 schools at the total cost of ₹ 2.07 crore in functions held at schools in the district on Saturday, he said the tender process for procuring laptops had been completed and they would be distributed to the students soon.
He said the government had sought financial support from the Centre for laying underground optical fibre cable to provide internet service to every household in 15,524 panchayats on Fibre to Home Technology (FTTH) under the ‘Illamthorum Inayam’ scheme. The facility, once rolled out, would help people to avail the benefits of all the government welfare programmes and services online, he said.
As the aerial cable, using electric poles would be vulnerable to vandalism by anti-social elements and lead to disruption of internet service, the government had decided to go for underground optical fibre cable and had approached the Centre for financial support, he said.
Detailing the 14 different welfare schemes being implemented by the government for the benefit of school students, he said 24,151 students in the district, including those who had finished class XI during 2017-18 and those studying class XI during 2018-19 would be given free bicycles during this academic year at the total cost of ₹8.97 crore.
In the first phase, the Minister distributed bicycles to 5,555 students in Parthibanur, Paramakudi and Nainarkoil. District Revenue Officer (DRO) S. Muthumari presided over the functions.
Chief Educational Officer R Murugan and District Educational Officers and heads of schools were present at the functions.