Rajasthan puts Gehlot’s free smartphone scheme on hold

Responding to a question in the Assembly by Congress MLA from Bamanwas, Indra Meena, the government said that a decision will be taken after “examining its benefits for women and whether it is in public interest.”

In her question, put up during the Question Hour, Meena had asked how many smartphones were given during the previous government, how much money was incurred, and whether the government plans on giving smartphones to the remaining eligible women.

In his reply, cabinet minister for Information Technology and Communication, Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore said that smartphones with internet data were given to 24,56,001 women who were eligible under Chiranjeevi scheme and Rs 1,670.08 crore were incurred on the same.

The scheme was first announced in 2022-23 where the aim was to give a smartphone to a woman in all 1.33 crore Chiranjeevi families, and a budget provision of Rs 1,600 crore was made for the same. Rathore said this was modified in the 2023-24 budget, where, in the first phase, the aim was to distribute 40 lakh smartphones. However, the scheme was suspended due to the imposition of Model Code of Conduct and till October 9, 2023, only 24.56 lakh smartphones could be given.

In a supplementary question, Meena objected to the words “examining its benefits”.

She said that after Covid, there is a trend that students study online, including the children of MLAs, be it from the ruling party or opposition. “Are girls of the poor not entitled to study online? What will you test? Are they not entitled to study online? What will be the test of public interest? Give a direct answer whether you will give smartphones to girls or not.”

However, as Rathore was answering the question, and amid disruption in the House, Speaker Vasudev Devnani announced the end of Question Hour.

With Lok Sabha elections expected to be announced in a few weeks, the Bhajan Lal government may announce the discontinuation of this scheme only once the polls have ended. So far, the BJP government has scrapped the Rajiv Gandhi Yuva Mitra internship, Mahatma Gandhi Seva Prerak and also changed the names of Indira Rasoi and Chiranjeevi Yojana to Annapurna Rasoi and Ayushman Bharat Yojana, respectively.