Not education, Mulayam's 'free-laptops' uplifts online sale

Moradabad, Oct 27: So what if the UP government does not provide its citizens with electricity or security, it has at least given its citizens a scope to earn some money.

True, the free laptop schemes were meant for the upliftment of education, but the beneficiaries have decided to trade it online for some easy money. It came as a shock when a mathematics teacher of the private Munda Panday inter college sold a laptop for Rs 14,000 to a Rampur resident through an e-tailing site. On further investigation, it was revealed that he had bought the laptop from one of female students who had received the laptop under the scheme.

Under the scheme, 19,000 laptops were distributed among the students in the state passing their Class 10 and 12. This was done in order to make the students more tech savvy. Saddened by the incident, District inspector of school, Sarwan Kumar Yadav said,"The chief minister wants to make the students more tech savvy and laptops are the best equipment for imparting e-education. We are saddened to hear that the students are selling their laptops. We will look into the college incident and take appropriate action accordingly."

The deal was posted by the teacher on the Internet and the ad said "Mulayam Wala Laptop or Sath me net setter, new keyword, new mouse, etc". On contacting the teacher said that he had used the laptop only for 50 hours and that he was forced to sell it because of money.

In fact, many sellers were also interested in buying the laptops as they had good resale value. Dalit writer Kanwal Bharti rightly pointed out,"The basic needs of the students are not the laptops. In rural areas, students don't the have a basic education system in place. Due to lack of money, inability to access the internet and shortage of electricity, they end up selling their laptops."

Meanwhile, Sarwan Kumar Yadav said,"It's not easy for the administration to stop students from selling their laptops. We can only request that instead of selling, they use the technology for their own benefit and make their future brighter."

OneIndia News