NaMo E-Tablet distribution at VNSGU called off

Surat: The district election officials swung into action on Saturday morning and stopped distribution of tablet by Veer Narmad South Gujarat University (VNSGU) after a complaint was filed by Aslam Cyclewala, Congress municipal councillor, stating that the tablets contain photos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the cover. Upon receipt of the complaint, election officials ordered the varsity to stop its distribution.
VNSGU had invited representatives from 90 colleges of the city and south Gujarat to collect the tablets from the varsity’s convention hall at 11 am. A large number of college staffers, who had come to collect the tablets waited for more than two hours but were forced to return empty-handed after the process was stopped by election officials. The full name of the state education department’s NAMO E-Tab scheme is ‘New Avenues of Modern Education through Tablets’.

Interestingly, a deputy registrar who was put on duty at the convention hall, disappeared from the spot after he got a call from registrar on his mobile phone. Even the other officials did not inform anything to the college staffers who were waiting at the spot before leaving the hall.

“The university started distributing the tablets which are being given under the NAMO E-Tab scheme. First, the tablets bear the shortened name of the PM. Then the boxes of the instrument contain photos of the PM. Therefore, I raised objections after which the election commission officials ordered the varsity to stop its distribution,” said Cyclewala. “The university officials had collected money for the tablets around 10 months ago, but they started distribution only before the election. What was the reason behind delaying the distribution till the announcement of elections,” he asked.

“I am not aware if the tablets are being distributed as NaMo E-Tablet. There were no photos of the PM on the tablets. But after we received instruction from the election officials to discontinue distribution, we did as told,” said Shivendra Gupta, vice-chancellor of VNSGU. However, Gupta could not explain to TOI when asked how he knew, despite being unaware of the distribution process, that the boxes did not carry Modi’s pics, or why did the varsity stop its distribution if the tablets did not have the photo of PM.

Gupta, however, said that NSUI demanding early distribution of the tablets had recently staged a dharna in a college too. “The government had collected money for it 10 months ago and when we started the distribution process, they (Congress) created problems again,” he added.