Continuing the trend of distribution of freebies across the state, the AIADMK government has decided to implement its poll promise of distribution of free laptops from September 15, 2011. In all 68 lakh free laptops will be distributed.
The free laptop distribution scheme is to be implemented in 5 years, and ELCOT (Electronic Corporation Tamil Nadu) has floated an international tender for 9.12 lakh laptops.
The tender aims at obtaining laptops at Rs. 15,000 / unit for government-specified configurations. Each laptop provided must have an Intel dual core processor, a clock speed of 2.1 GHz and RAM memory worth 2 GB. Also, the laptops must have a memory of 320 GB and should come with a warranty of a minimum of three years.
As an added request, the state government has asked the suppliers to engrave the government's logo into the chip so that it gets displayed each time the computer is turned on. This step has been taken to ensure that the government-provided laptops are not put out for sale. During earlier freebie schemes - of distribution of mixer-grinders and fans for women, and colour televisions for families - all commodities were quickly reaching showrooms across the state.
The total expenditure for the laptop distribution scheme is estimated to be Rs. 10,200 crores, and an appeal has been sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the provision of same.
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