Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Thursday clarified that though the government headed by her was willing to distribute laptops free of cost to all students simultaneously, it was unable to do so since the companies which took orders for supplying the laptops were providing them in a phased manner.
Responding to the charge of DMK member Govi Chezhiyan that students were protesting the delay in the distribution of laptops to them, the Chief Minister said the hard disks for the laptops were procured from Taiwan. Since the factories there were flooded with rainwater, for many months, hard disks could not be manufactured and hence there was delay in the supply of computers.
During the discussion on demands for grants for Higher Education Department, the CM took a dig at the previous DMK regime with regard to student safety.