In yet another pre-poll largesse, the Odisha government on Sunday announced to distribute free laptops to meritorious students who pass +2 examinations.

With this Odisha has joined states like Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, where the governments had announced similar schemes offering free laptops and tablets to students keeping an eye on the youth vote bank.

“To bridge the digital divide, all the meritorious students at plus two level will be provided with free laptops. Under this initiative, special focus would be given to girls and students belonging to SC and ST communities,” Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday said while launching the Odisha State Youth Policy (OSYP) 2013 here.

Emphasising on the need of capacity building through education and training, Patnaik said, career counseling centers at all colleges will be set up to provide guidance to the students for opting a promising career.

The policy has provisions of scholarship for students pursuing higher education and professional education. Besides, Mission Yuva Shakti, a new initiative under this policy, has been introduced to promote SHGs (self help group) among the youth to explore the potentiality for self-employment.

The Chief Minister said, Biju Yuva Sha-ShaktiKaran Yojana, which has provision for one-time grant of Rs 10,000 to registered youth clubs of urban area, will be extended to rural areas.

The policy has scholarship provision for SC and ST girls who want to study technical education. Every year 10,000 students from SC, ST and BPL categories, who have completed secondary education, would be given laptop and pre-paid data card for internet connectivity.

To provide employment opportunities to youth every district will have Youth Counseling Centers. Every university will also have Youth Entrepreneurship Development Agency that will encourage self-employment among educated youth.

Girls from BPL categories would get a scholarship of Rs 40,000 annually to get trained in vocational education and every district will have young women hostel. The girl child of SC and ST community would be reimbursed for their daily conveyance to educational centres.

According to provision of the policy, the State government will open six regional coaching and training centers for SC and ST youth.

Apart from education and self-employment, the policy is aimed at providing skilled and technical training in sports and games.

While launching the OSYP, which is planned to attract young mass of the state comprising 42 per cent of over its four crore population, Patnaik announced that the state government will constitute a new promotional body under the name Sports Authority of Odisha.

The policy provides for creation of several new institutions and facilities and provision of financial assistance and incentives to youth, he said.

The policy has categorised boys and girls in the age group of 13-35 years into three different categories. Apart from educated young mass from affluent as well as poor societies, the policy is specifically designed to target migrant youth, slum dwellers, dropout students and differently-abled persons. The policy has provision for establishments of open schools for school drop outs. It also talked about opening Help centres at six states for migrant young Odia workers.

The main focus of the policy is to provide education, skill development, training and employment, health and wellbeing, sports and physical education, active citizenship and community engagement, environment and safety, heritage, culture and diversity, gender justice and equality, said the Chief Minister, who has already announced several populist measures in past couple of months keeping an eye on the impending elections.