Panaji (Goa) In what came as major shocker to around 32,000 youths on Friday evening, the State government, without prior intimation, announced to discontinue the much hyped ‘Goa Yuva Samwad Yojana (GYSY)from July 1, within six month of its launch in December 2016.

GYSY launched by then Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar provided free calling of upto 100 minute and internet data usage of upto 3GB for youth in the age group of 16-30 years.The scheme was suppose to be in force till December 2019.

Aimed at targeting the youth electorate just before the State Assembly elections in February 2017, the then BJP government had introduced the scheme.

While there was no prior intimation, the beneficiary started receiving text massages on Friday late evening informing about discontinuation of the scheme from July 1. “the Goa government is in process of reassessing the GYSY and in the view of the same, the scheme benefit will be discontinued from July 1, 2017. The scheme will stand inoperative until future notice”.

The scheme was provided through Vodafone mobile operator.

Minister for Information Technology Rohan Khaunte confirmed that the scheme will discontinue from July 1. “Government was receiving lot of complaints from parents in last two months that the scheme is been misused by the students.There was also no track of students getting the benefit like IT and Digital India concept under the scheme,” he said.

“Hence, Governemnt decided to discontinue the scheme and to come out with a new scheme with a priority to digital literacy in rural areas,” Minister said.

Team TNV