Maharashtra to provide laptops to over 13,000 agriculture dept employees

Mumbai, Sep 9 (PTI) Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Dattatray Bharne on Tuesday directed that more than 13,000 agriculture department employees in the state be given laptops, rejecting a proposal from senior officials to provide tablet devices instead.

The decision was taken at a meeting held in the minister's office after representatives of the agriculture employees' union strongly opposed the move to replace laptops with tablets.

Officials had argued that tablets would be cheaper, lighter and more convenient for field use, including uploading photographs.

Principal Secretary of the Agriculture Department Vikaschandra Rastogi made a presentation at the meeting, suggesting that tablets would be more beneficial.

Union leaders countered that several official applications and schemes such as MahaDBT, Pokhara, CropSAP, MahaKrishi, Mahavistar, LAP App and FFS App, along with project reports, could not be handled efficiently without laptops.

Earlier, during the tenure of then agriculture minister Manikrao Kokate, senior department officials had moved towards replacing laptops with tablets. Bharne has now reversed that decision and ordered laptops to be distributed.

According to officials, the distribution will cover 10,620 assistant agriculture officers, 1,770 deputy agriculture officers and 885 block agriculture officers, totaling 13,275 staff. The plan involves an estimated outlay of Rs 79.65 crore, assuming a cost of Rs 60,000 per laptop.

"Employees must be given what is convenient for their work. The union has rightly pointed out that laptops are more efficient for departmental tasks. Therefore, laptops will be provided," Bharne said. PTI ND KRK