PANAJI: Ushering in the gift of digital connectivity to the youth, the state cabinet on Friday approved the Goa Yuva Sanvaad Yovjan to provide free talk time and data on the mobile phones. Youth in the age group of 16 to 30 years will be able to avail the benefits.
Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said that the state government, keeping in line with the Digital India programme of government of India, had mentioned during the budget that a state-level Digital Youth Initiative Scheme would be launched.
He said, “We had announced this scheme in this year’s budget… Nearly 1.25 lakh youth will be able to avail of the benefit under this scheme. The market value of the free pack we are providing is about Rs 450 to 500. However, the benefits under this scheme will be limited only within Goa.”
Under the scheme, every youth in the age group of 16 to 30 years who registers will get a sim card and every month a package comprising of 100 minutes of local voice calls, 3 GB 3G or 4G data pack with 2 mbps download speed, all for free. The government will spend about Rs 1 crore a month on this scheme which the Chief Minister said will be launched in a fortnight. Parsekar further informed that Vodafone has been the successful bidder for the scheme implementation. “We had invited bids from various companies. Reliance had quoted Rs 207, Idea had quoted Rs 180 and Vodafone quoted Rs 124.90,” he added.
He stated that any youth who attains the age of 16 years on or after 1 April 2016 or less than 30 years as on the date of registration minus six months and a resident in the state for the last five years, will be eligible under the scheme.
However, the government has stated that the beneficiary could lose the benefits for misusing the data package for unethical and abusive usage. The Chief Minister said, “The scheme would specifically be more useful to the rural youth who are presently out of Digital India paradigm due to non-availability of internet access. It will also help the youth to connect with the peers across the state and countries and increase their knowledge base in terms of education, career opportunities and skill development.”