Rajasthan: Ashok Gehlot govt's free smartphone scheme for women put on hold

JAIPUR: The Mukhyamantri Digital Seva Yojana, expected to provide 1.3 crore smartphones to women for digital empowerment, of the previous Congress govt has become the latest project to come under the scrutiny of the current Bhajan Lal Sharma dispensation which has decided to temporarily discontinue the scheme.
The project, which was announced in the 2023-24 Budget, had an allocation of Rs 16,000 crore and included three years of complimentary data for beneficiaries.

In response to an enquiry from Bamanwas MLA Indira Meena, the govt confirmed that the scheme has been temporarily halted pending an evaluation of its efficacy.
'Smartphone scheme aims at empowering women digitally'
The previous Ashok Gehlot govt had provided 24.5 lakh smartphones to women before the assembly polls in Nov 2023. "A total of 24.5 lakh women were given smartphones with internet data for an aggregate amount of Rs 1,670.1 crore. The previous govt had set a goal of providing smartphones to 40 lakh women in the first phase," stated a reply submitted by the department of information technology (DoIT) in the assembly.
"BJP is engaging in petty politics. The scheme was aimed at empowering women digitally. I urge the party to refrain from abandoning it and resume distribution of phones," Meena said.
"The scheme's viability has been contentious. Distributing smartphones to 1.3 crore women when nearly 80% of the beneficiaries already have them is like offering redundant freebies. A comprehensive analysis will be conducted on the 24.5 lakh beneficiaries soon," said a high-ranking CMO official.