Jayalalithaa asks PM for Rs10,200 crore grant for free laptops

Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa Tuesday asked the central government for a special grant of Rs10,200 crore to implement her party's poll promise of giving free laptops to school and college students.

Jayalalithaa, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the capital on Tuesday, submitted to him a memorandum detailing various schemes and the funds needed from the central government for implementing these.

According to the memorandum, copies of which were released to the media here, over the next five years, the Tamil Nadu government envisages providing nearly 6.8 million laptops to students.

"The total financial implication works out to approximately Rs10,200 crore. In the first year of the programme, 912,000 laptop computers will be provided," the memorandum notes.

It added that students from lower rungs of the society need to be equipped to participate in the emerging market.

The state government said that its policy was in line with the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (ICT), whose objective is to provide connectivity, along with provision of access devices, to institutions and learners.