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PMC plans free tablets for civic school students
Move to ensure online learning for students takes place without any impediments.
Pune The Pune municipal corporation’s (PMC) elected members, on Tuesday, proposed the distribution of tablets and other necessary materials to students in schools run by the civic body. This is to ensure the online learning of students in civic schools can take place without any impediments.
The standing committee has approved the proposal.
Standing committee chairman, BJP’s Hemant Rasne said, “Elected members are making such proposals. It is difficult to deny it immediately in the meeting. The standing committee approved it and sent it to the municipal commissioner for the administration’s opinion on it.”
A senior BJP leader, on condition of anonymity, said, “Though the standing panel had approved the proposal for giving tablets to school students, it will not be easy to execute. PMC does not have the funds; and the second thing is, if the administration says yes, it would take time to purchase the same. In six months’ time, there is a possibility schools and colleges would reopen.”
The tablets-for-all proposal is one among many sops that have been proposed in the recent months.
Last week, a proposal to give Rs5,000 in cash to each saloon owner in the city, to counter the negative effects of the Covid-19 lockdown, was put forth.
The municipal administration shot down the proposal.
A senior civic official, also requesting anonymity, said, “It is getting very difficult to say no to such proposals, considering, the standing committee approves them. They know very well that without pressure from the mayor, or senior party leaders, the administration would never give positive feedback on such proposals.”
