Bengaluru: The house committee of Legislative Council headed by K C Kondaiah, directed the government to start distributing laptops to the degree and technical course students of the academic year 2016-17. The house committee said that the government must call a section-wise tender for the purchase of laptops.
The committee was unhappy as there was no distribution of laptops to the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe students, though the tender process was completed for 31,742 laptops and a work order was given to Acer company. Each laptop was to be purchased at a price of Rs 14,490.
Meanwhile, in a letter written by the Legislative Council Secretary (in-charge) Mahalaxmi, to the Department of Higher Education General Secretary Javid Akthar, it has been directed to submit the district-wise report on the distribution of laptops to the students.
The government has decided to distribute laptops to 1.5 lakh students who gained admission to the first year degree in this year and earmarked Rs 272 crore for the purpose. The committee members opined that it is not fair to allege fraud even before the tender process. As decided by the college education department earlier, the tender can be called in four separate divisions, it said.
It can be recalled that then College Education Department Commissioner Ajay Nagabhushan wrote a letter to the chief secretary that there is a possibility of loss in the purchase of laptops as rules were not followed, which was discussed in Belgaum session later.
The committee has finished three meetings already, but no reports have been submitted to the government. Meanwhile, committee members Raghunatha Rao Malkapure, Aruna Shahapura and Ramesh Babu have submitted their letters to the Legislative Council Chairman D H Shankaramurthy that they don’t agree with the tender process of laptops.