After flood sops, Shivraj Singh Chouhan plays Santa with laptops, loans

BHOPAL: From distributing cash for laptops to meritorious students to making the state act as guarantor for bank loans sanctioned to youth, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is playing Santa Claus in Madhya Pradesh just months before the assembly elections.

A day after announcing a tenfold hike in flood compensation, Chouhan swiftly swung to another populist scheme: laptops.

The laptop distribution will be done on Monday at a gala youth ceremony, the last major government function before the polls. In a hurry to beat the election code of conduct, the CM has brought the distribution function forward by six months. More than 2,000 meritorious students have been shortlisted to receive the computers.

Chouhan got the idea for the laptop bonanza scheme from another heartland satrap, Akhilesh Yadav. But while the UP chief minister even distributed some of the machines himself, Chouhan will hand out bank drafts of Rs 25,000 in lieu of the laptops.

The opposition is calling it a cash-for-votes scheme. "There is no guarantee the students will buy laptops from the cash dole," said J P Dhanopia, state Congress spokesperson. "It's a big election sop."

The ceremony in the state capital's Lal Parade Maidan has been named the Yuva Swarozgar Sammelan. Students who secured more than 85% marks in the higher secondary exams of the state board will benefit. Private school students have been kept out of the scheme, but the CM is likely to pacify urban youth with an announcement on Monday.

In another possible boost to Chouhan, one crore new voters have been added to the electoral roll — most of whom are first-time voters. And the chief minister is wooing them with loans. "Under the chief minister's self-employment scheme, the government promised to stand guarantor to banks and financial institutions that will provide loans up to Rs 25 lakh to unemployed youth for setting-up small-scale industry," said state industries minister Kailash Vijayavargiya.