While Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh launched the scheme for distribution of smartphones to the youth at Chandigarh, the Industries and Commerce Minister Sham Sunder Arora personally handed over smartphones to 15 students of class XII marking International Youth Day here at District Administrative Complex.At the very outset of launch of Smartphones Scheme, the Minister extended greetings to the people on the auspicious occasion of Janam Ashtami.Accompanied by the political advisor to CM and MLA Urmar Sangat Singh Gilzian, MLAs Pawan Kumar Adia, Dr. Raj Kumar Chabbewal, Indu Bala and Deputy Commissioner Apneet Riyait during smartphone giving away function, the Minister said that Punjab Governmen led by the Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had fulfilled its another major promise made with the people during the run up to assembly polls. He said that this endeavour of providing state-of-the-art Smartphones to students would be immensely beneficial in pursuing their studies without any hurdles especially in the tough time of COVID-19 pandemic as these phone were having all requisite specifications.Giving assembly wise breakup of eligible students, the Minister said that as many as 633 boys and 439 Girls of Chabbewal and Dasuya 1034 boys & 1111 girls students will get these smartphones. Similarly, 875 boys and 793 girls in Garhshankar besides 529 boys and 828 girls in Hoshiarpur will be provided with smartphones. Likewise, the number of beneficiaries students in Mukerian is 891 boys and 747 girls, in Sham Chaurasi 841 boys and 738 girls. In Urmar 601 boys and 524 girls will have these smartphones.
Only 15 students have been invited to receive these phones in order to avoid gathering and crowd amid COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, said the Minister adding that such functions were being held simultaneously at different 26 locations. The state government has decided, that in the first phase, Smart Phones would be given to all boys and girls studying in Class 12 in Government schools across the state as per the current number of admissions in Government schools i.e. nearly 1.74 lakh with an outlay of Rs 92 crore approximately.Citing the salient features of these Smart Phones, Sunder Sham Arora said that now the students would be able to access relevant information about their course through these smartphones. He said that this would also facilitate department in imparting education online with convenience to both students and teaching staff. He also pointed out that these smartphones would also ensure access to avail citizen services online besides making youth aware about the welfare schemes. The minister also mentioned that with these smartphones the youth would be able to access employment opportunities, job fairs and recruitment drives under State Government’s flagship scheme Ghar-Ghar Rozgaar & Karobaar.Pointing out that, in this era of Social Media, the Minister said that these youth will excel in digital literacy and have access to digital payments, insurance, online banking etc. besides staying connected with their families and friends through social media.Interacting with media persons, the Minister reiterated that Punjab Government was committed to fulfil all the promised made during the run up to the assembly polls. He said that after Class XII, all the students of Class XI of Government Schools would get these smart phones.
Gagandeep Kaur Interacts With Chief Minister
During video conferencing, student of Government Girls Senior Secondary School Railway Mandi Gagandeep Kaur shared his happiness with the Chief Minister after receving the smart phone. She apprised the Chief Minister that her father was a labourers and it was a dream of her to get a smart phone to pursue her studies online amid COVID-19 pandemic. She said that the State Government had realised her dream by providing smart phone, which would be instrumental in getting studies.
Specifications Of Phone:
M/s Lava has been selected as Implementation Partner to deliver and distribute smart phones model Z61_2GB. The phone will have 2 GB RAM with 1.5 GHz processor and 5.45 inches display size. The resolution of phone will be 1280X720, 3000 mAh battery, eight mega pixel rear and five mega pixel front cameras with capacitive touch screen. The Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, headphone jack, USB enabled OS-Android 9.0 phone will be compiled with all types of networks such as 2G, 3G,4G/LTE, VoLTE having ROM (Memory) – 16 GB, which is expandable to 128 GB.