Mamata to give Rs 10k to students ahead of polls; here’s what her counterparts announced in their states

The West Bengal government said that the students can use the money to buy tablets or smartphones for “seamless online education”.

With West Bengal Assembly elections just months away, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced that Rs 10,000 would be transferred to the bank accounts of 9.5 lakh Class 12 students in government schools and madrasas instead of giving them tablets. The state government added that the students can use the money to buy tablets or smartphones for “seamless online education”.

Among other announcements, CM Banerjee also promised a 3 per cent hike in dearance allowance for state government employees from next month and cheaper RT-PCR test. The cost of an RT-PCR test for Covid-19 has been reduced to Rs 950 from Rs 1,250. Earlier in October, the price of the test kit was slashed from Rs 2,250.

Here is a list of pre-election sops that leaders across the country have announced in recent times.

Bihar

During the recently-concluded Bihar polls, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said he would waive education loan if any of the beneficiaries under the Student Credit Card Scheme would be unable to repay the loan.

New Delhi

As part of a ‘guarantee card’ released before the 2020 Delhi state assembly elections, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, in a long list of promises, said he would offer free bus rides to students if elected to power.

Rajasthan

Before the 2018 state elections in Rajasthan, then CM Vasundhra Raje had promised free wifi facilities to state universities. She had also promised to open 8 new Industrial Training Institutes in the state along with the distribution of free sanitary pads in all government schools. However, the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress party won the polls. The Congress party had pledged to make education in government schools, colleges and universities free for women from all categories.

Karnataka

During the 2018 election in Karnataka, free laptops were promised to first-year undergraduate students and to SC/ST students in government-aided law schools in the state. In addition, a free bus pass scheme was also rolled out for SC/ST. The then Congress-led government also offered free education to girls from class 1 to graduation to families with income less than 10 lakh. BS Yediyurappa-led BJP, on the other hand, promised that it would launch ‘Mukhya Mantri Laptop Yojane’ to give every student enrolling in a college a laptop free of cost.

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