Goa Yuva Samwad Yojana gets cabinet nod

PANAJI: Aimed at targeting the youth electorate during the upcoming assembly elections, the state cabinet on Friday approved a first-of-its-kind scheme in the country, the ‘Goa Yuva Samwad Yojana (GYSY)’ which will provide free calling of upto 100 minute and internet data usage of up to 3 GB for youth in the age group of 16 to 30 years.
Chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar said that under GYSY, nearly 1.25 lakh youth would get free mobile connection.This will incur an additional liability of 1 crore on the state exchequer. Parsekar said that a free one time sim card will be made available to the youth.
The state government has finalized Vodafone as the mobile operator that will provide this services. Parsekar said that keeping in line with the Central government’s Digital India initiative, the state government had promised to come up with a digital initiative for the youth of the state. He said that the government would implement the GYSY via Goa Electronic Ltd as the implementing agency. “This scheme will continue for a period of three years from the date of inception. Necessary budget provision will be made for the consecutive years in the budget,” Parsekar said.
The CM said that any youth who attains the age of 16 years on or after April 1, 2016 or who is less than or 30-years-old as on date of registration may apply for the scheme. “He/she should be a resident of Goa for the last five years,” he said.
If a person has any doubt regarding eligibility, the same shall be decided by a committee consisting of the secretary to the Goa government, the in-charge of the department of information technology and others. The decision of the committee shall be final and binding.
Parsekar said that benefits under the scheme can be cancelled or deactivated either on request of the applicant or if the beneficiary crosses the 30 years age mark or if the beneficiary is identified as making unlawful/abusive/offensive usage of the service.