Deputy Commissioners all set to launch cellphone scheme

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, August 11

The deputy commissioners concerned will launch the distribution of smartphones among Class XII girl students of government schools from Wednesday. They will hand over the phones to a selected number of students due to Covid-related restrictions. The smartphones among other students will be distributed by their school heads.

The Education Department has conveyed to all principals of government senior secondary schools to keep ready two identity documents (school ID card and Aadhaar card) of the students to whom phones are being given. Principals along with the drawing and disbursing authorities of schools will be responsible for the distribution.

It is the responsibility of the principal concerned that mobilephones reach the genuine beneficiary.

There are a total of 1.73 lakh Class XII students in 1,877 government senior secondary schools in the state. All students whose names have been uploaded by their schools by August 7 on the education department portal will be eligible to receive the phones.

Last week, the department had planned to distribute these phones among all Class XII Dalit girl students in the first phase. Later, it decided to cover all girl students of Class XII.

Aimed at providing digital access to the students, these smartphones are equipped with cameras and pre-loaded government applications like e-sewa app with e-content related to Class XI and XII as approved by the education department.