NEW DELHI: Aditya Thackeray, Shiv Sena's youth wing leader, today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed plans on how the Digital India campaign could be given a boost by his pet-project of giving tablet PCs to students.
Leading a delegation of Shiv Sena MPs, Thackeray said the tablet, consisting of syllabus and notes, could help in reducing students' burden of schools bags. The tablet PC is being distributed to some schools in Maharashtra, especially in and around Mumbai, under the project espoused by the Thackeray scion. Until now 1,200 tablets have been distributed and the target is to distribute 25,000 such tablets.
"All Maharashtra syllabus textbooks have been incorporated in the tablet in Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Marathi. We spoke on how this could be taken across the country. He liked the tablet and he has kept one with himself," he said. "Aditya Thackeray briefed the Prime Minister on voluntary initiatives for the education sector – including distribution of study material for Classes 8th, 9th and 10th through Tablet PCs in the state of Maharashtra.
"The Prime Minister appreciated the initiative and complimented Aditya Thackeray for the same," a statement by the Prime Minister's Office said. The 25-year-old leader also briefed Modi about the virtual classrooms in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), controlled by the Shivsena-BJP alliance for over two decades. Two hundred schools have been connected via satellite and a teacher can have a two-way interaction with the students.
"We also invited the Prime Minister... the next time he comes to Mumbai, he should visit the BMC schools," Thackeray said. Party MPs Anandrao Adsul, Arvind Sawant, Anil Desai, Rajan Vichare, Rahul Shewale, Gajanan Kirtikar and Rahul Shewale accompanied Thackeray.
Aditya Thackeray, son of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, has been vocal about several issues though his views are starkly different to those professed by his late grandfather Bal Thackeray, including for an all-open night life for Mumbai.