PMK youth wing leader Anbumani Ramadoss on Wednesday said that the free laptop and cycles schemes for students studying in government schools and other educational institutions should not be discontinued by Tamil Nadu government for the current year.
In a statement, Dr. Anbumani said that almost 11 lakh students have benefited from the scheme since it’s introduction in 2011-12. “There are media reports that these two schemes will not be implemented for this year and the money will be spent for the purpose of containment of Covid-19. This would affect the studies of the students,” he said.
Dr. Anbumani said that if the scheme was continued next year, it would create more confusion as the State Government would need to provide free laptops and cycles for Classes XI and XII students next year. “This would create confusion. Everyone knows the difficulties faced by officials for the first two years when the schemes were introduced,” he said.
Dr. Anbumani added that PMK did not believe in providing ‘useless freebies’ but when it comes to education, everything – from pieces of chalk to laptops – should be given for free. Dr. Anbumani added that the Tamil Nadu government shouldn’t discontinue the scheme citing difficulties in procuring cycles and laptops when the cases are declining.
