Tirupur : A sudden roadblock protest staged by students of an old batch who have been ‘cheated of’ their freebie laptops during their course of the study at the Palladam Higher Secondary school created flutter in the area.
Tirupur : A sudden roadblock protest staged by students of an old batch who have been ‘cheated of’ their freebie laptops during their course of the study at the Palladam Higher Secondary school created flutter in the area.
About 500 students who had studied in 2016-17 and 2018-2019 educational year batches in Palladam have thronged in strength at their alma mater, where a function was organised to distribute free laptops to the current batch of students.
As a part of State government free laptop scheme to higher secondary school students, nine Government Higher Secondary schools in Palladam Taluk were earmarked this year, and Minister Udumalai K Radhakrishnan. MLA Natarajan, District Collector K.S. Palanisamy were all in attendance for the function to distribute laptops to students.
About 4,179 laptops were also ready to be distributed to the students when the old batch students arrived at the scene and demanded their ‘long denied’ laptops.
Minister for Animal Husbandry, Udumalai K Radhakrishnan was irked when he heard about the students who have thronged to the venue to demand the fate of their freebie laptop which was not distributed to them at all.
The students of a previous batch who were cheated off their ‘freebie laptop’ tried to make complaint to the minister himself but was prevented by the police.
Shortly after the function, the Minister who left from the venue to the Government guest house in Palladam which resulted in the roadblock in Tirupur - Mangalam road by the affected students.
Traffic was affected for a brief moment, as the students refused to disperse and engaged in a war of words with the policemen on duty.
Later, when the students were allowed to meet the Minister in the guest house and the Minister is understood to have assured them to distribute free laptops to the students by August 2.
It is common knowledge that freebie laptops which are meant for school students often finds its way into the black market and sold for subsidised prices all over the state.