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How will you use your laptops? Bihar legislators asked
Monday, 15 September 2003, 19:30 IST
PATNA: They will have to first explain how they propose to put them to productive use.
Bihar legislative assembly secretary J.P. Pal has asked the legislators to submit a brief report on how exactly they would utilize the laptops. The reports have to be submitted by Tuesday.
The government had sanctioned 
15.9 million in March to purchase laptops and printers for its 243 legislators. Each machine is likely to cost 120,000.
And since many of Bihar's legislators are school dropouts, know very little English and are computer illiterate, they will get a monthly grant of 5,000 to employ an assistant to work the laptops.
Bihar is one of India's least economically and technologically developed states.
Officials in the finance department said a committee headed by the development commissioner had approved the purchase but said the legislators would have to explain how they proposed to use the laptops.
"The laptops will enable legislators to keep information about their constituencies and development works," said Mohammad Ghaus of the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
The government has made it clear the legislators would have to surrender the laptops at the end of their terms.
Chief Minister Rabri Devi 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 has maintained.
Rabri Devi, whose two sons-in-law are IT professionals, had announced last year that the 9,000 village councils in the state would be computerised. She insisted the decision had nothing to do with her sons-in-law.
Rabri Devi's husband and RJD head Laloo Prasad Yadav has often rubbished IT as "a tool of the elite".
Aided by a New 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, especially those related to land.
Source: IANS
15.9 million in March to purchase laptops and printers for its 243 legislators. Each machine is likely to cost 120,000.
And since many of Bihar's legislators are school dropouts, know very little English and are computer illiterate, they will get a monthly grant of 5,000 to employ an assistant to work the laptops.
Bihar is one of India's least economically and technologically developed states.
Officials in the finance department said a committee headed by the development commissioner had approved the purchase but said the legislators would have to explain how they proposed to use the laptops.
"The laptops will enable legislators to keep information about their constituencies and development works," said Mohammad Ghaus of the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
The government has made it clear the legislators would have to surrender the laptops at the end of their terms.
Chief Minister Rabri Devi 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 has maintained.
Rabri Devi, whose two sons-in-law are IT professionals, had announced last year that the 9,000 village councils in the state would be computerised. She insisted the decision had nothing to do with her sons-in-law.
Rabri Devi's husband and RJD head Laloo Prasad Yadav has often rubbished IT as "a tool of the elite".
Aided by a New 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, especially those related to land.
Source: IANS