Ifrah Mufti : Chandigarh, Tue Aug 27 2013, 01:40 hrs
After two years, when Panjab University found the potential student customers for the subsidised Akash tablets worth Rs 1,100 and wrote to the HRD ministry, the varsity authorities claim to have been waiting for a response and around 4,000 students who registered themselves are also waiting for the tablets.
The 7-inch touchscreen computing and internet device was offered to the students at a subsidised price of Rs 1,100. The low price of the tablets was expected to raise the demands, but initially, the tablets failed to attract students from the university. There were no registrations even from the Computer department till last year, due to which PU had extended the deadlines, so that the demands could be raised and more applicants could register themselves.
According to project co-ordinator Tankeshwar Singh, "A few tablets were distributed to the students as part of a pilot project, but some technical errors were observed, and after that we extended the submission deadlines for the tablet registrations. Meanwhile, 4,000 out of around 14,000 students at PU who registered themselves for the subsidised tablets, the applications for the same, were also submitted to the ministry, then. We have not received anything in written from the ministry as to when are they planning to send the tablets across. I have heard that recently HRD has given around 20,000 tablets to the students of IIT, Mumbai for some online project."
"Many departments later came up for the registrations. 50 per cent registrations were made by the students from the University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET). Students from Public Administration, Science and Computers department also came up. For few months, students kept coming to confirm if the tablets have reached. It has been a long time now that we haven't received any notification from the ministry," Singh added.
Tankeshwar Singh, who is also the Computer Centre director at PU, told Chandigarh Newsline that the project was a request made by the ministry itself to distribute the tablets to the students and faculty members.
One of the engineering students at PU said, "Carrying laptops everyday is not an easy task and also, making presentations on the tablets is much easier. We are eagerly waiting for such reasonable tablets."
