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Bihar tender soon for buying laptops for legislators
Sunday, 02 November 2003, 20:30 IST
PATNA: Bihar legislators will soon become proud owners of personal laptops, with the state government deciding to advertise for computers through a global tender.
"The tender will make the purchase of laptop computers transparent," said an official.
Since many legislators are school dropouts, know very little English and are computer illiterate, they will also get a monthly grant of 
5,000 to employ an assistant to work the laptops.
The legislators, in one of India's least economically and technologically developed states, will also be put through two weeks of computer training before they can lay claim to the laptops.
They will also have to explain how they propose to put the computers to good use and have been asked by legislative assembly secretary J.P. Pal to submit a brief report on this by Tuesday.
While officials in the finance department said a committee headed by the development commissioner had approved the purchase, Bihar chief secretary K.A.H. Subramanian will review the process this week.
The government had sanctioned 15.9 million in March to purchase laptops and printers for its 320 legislators, including 243 members of the legislative assembly and 77 members of legislative council.
Each computer is likely to cost 125,000.
"The laptops will enable legislators to keep information about their constituencies and development work," said Mohammad Ghaus of the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
The government has made it clear that the legislators would have to surrender the laptops at the end of their terms.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Rabri Devi, who along with her husband, RJD supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav, had earlier rubbished IT as "a tool of the elite", insists the laptops will be put to good use.
"It is necessary for legislators to work on computers to save time and connect to the world directly to provide better service to the people," she maintained.
Rabri Devi, whose two sons-in-law are IT professionals, announced last year that the 9,000 village councils in the state would be computerised.
Aided by a Delhi-based NGO, the Bihar government had earlier provided computer training to the inmates of Patna's Beur Jail.
The government also spent 150 million on computerising select departments and updating records, particularly those related with land.
Source: IANS
5,000 to employ an assistant to work the laptops.
The legislators, in one of India's least economically and technologically developed states, will also be put through two weeks of computer training before they can lay claim to the laptops.
They will also have to explain how they propose to put the computers to good use and have been asked by legislative assembly secretary J.P. Pal to submit a brief report on this by Tuesday.
While officials in the finance department said a committee headed by the development commissioner had approved the purchase, Bihar chief secretary K.A.H. Subramanian will review the process this week.
The government had sanctioned 15.9 million in March to purchase laptops and printers for its 320 legislators, including 243 members of the legislative assembly and 77 members of legislative council.
Each computer is likely to cost 125,000.
"The laptops will enable legislators to keep information about their constituencies and development work," said Mohammad Ghaus of the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
The government has made it clear that the legislators would have to surrender the laptops at the end of their terms.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Rabri Devi, who along with her husband, RJD supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav, had earlier rubbished IT as "a tool of the elite", insists the laptops will be put to good use.
"It is necessary for legislators to work on computers to save time and connect to the world directly to provide better service to the people," she maintained.
Rabri Devi, whose two sons-in-law are IT professionals, announced last year that the 9,000 village councils in the state would be computerised.
Aided by a Delhi-based NGO, the Bihar government had earlier provided computer training to the inmates of Patna's Beur Jail.
The government also spent 150 million on computerising select departments and updating records, particularly those related with land.
Source: IANS