Big news for state womens. Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot called on the Bhajanlal government on Saturday to bring back the initiative that provided free smartphones to female heads of the Chiranjeevi families. He shared a detailed post on Instagram, highlighting the advantages of the program and criticizing its cancellation as a breach of Article 14 of the Constitution.

Gehlot pointed out on X, “The Chief Minister and Finance Minister keep bragging about distributing 88,000 tablets over their time in office. What they seem to forget is that the tablet distribution was actually announced by our government last year and just carried out by the new administration. They conveniently ignore the fact that they’ve halted the smartphone distribution for women.”

He added, “Our government aimed to empower women by providing smartphones with three years of internet access to all 1.19 crore female heads of Chiranjeevi families in the state. In the first phase, around 35 lakh women received smartphones. However, the BJP government scrapped this initiative as soon as they took over, despite it being part of the budget that was already allocated. In over a year, they haven’t managed to distribute a single smartphone.”

Gehlot emphasized that this action by the BJP government also violates Article 14, which ensures equality for citizens before the law. If a program to provide smartphones to all women has been initiated, it shouldn’t just be stopped. Many women in the state are still waiting for their smartphones, and they remember the Prime Minister’s promise during the elections not to discontinue any Congress schemes. It’s high time the BJP government reinstated this program.