Tamil Nadu govt orders internet via data cards of 2GB/per day for 9,69,047 students

In a bid to ease pressure on students taking online classes across the state, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, on Sunday announced free data card for 9.69 lakh students studying in government, government-aided and self-financed colleges across the state.

The statement issued by the Tamil Nadu Govt read, “Owing to COVID-19 pandemic spread, colleges were shutdown and classes are conducted online. To ensure students participate in online classes without any interruption, state government will provide free data cards to 9,69,047 students studying in government, government aided and self-financed arts and science, polytechnic and engineering colleges."

TN Govt orders issuing internet connection via data cards

This move comes just days after discussions were held by the state govt representatives with the parents and teachers of various schools across the Districts to decide on the date for reopening schools and colleges for children. The Chief Minister in the statement said, keeping in mind the COVID-19 pandemic, the colleges are holding online classes for students. In order to enable the students to attend the online classes, the government has decided to give free data cards with a usage capacity of 2GB per day between January to April.

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About 9,69,047 college students will be issued e-data cards, students studying in the government and aided arts and science colleges, polytechnic colleges, engineering colleges and students receiving scholarships in private colleges. These data cards will be issued by the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Ltd. (Elcot), a state government undertaking.

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This move by the state government was welcomed by parents who said, providing these 2GB/Day data would relieve the stress of attending classes on children. "Definitely, it would help to get that additional internet connection provided by the state. We all know how difficult and costly 'work-from-home' data packs have become, be it whichever cellular network. Hope they implement this at the earliest," says Raghav K Reddy, student union council member at Velammal College. 

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Earlier in December, the State Government has issued a G.O stating colleges be reopened for final year undergraduate and postgraduate students, with a 50% student population on campus. But with several students and parents fearing the pandemic, the state had also made provisions that students can take up online classes if they preferred to do so and that there shouldn't be any changes or disruptions in the said online classes. 

"After the IIT-Madras and Anna University cluster of COVID cases went up, most of us preferred taking classes through our laptops, online. One can never be too careful, not to add to the worry about new covid strains/variants emerging every few weeks. First, the state government gave us laptops, now internet connection, it helps," says Sudha Nair, a BCom student at a reputed college in Chennai.

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