A Jadavpur University committee has allocated Rs 16 lakh out of a corpus Rs 21 lakh to buy students smartphones and data packs this month so no one misses out on digital education and exams, said an official of the institute.

A 10-member committee at its second meeting held on Thursday decided that 200 students would be bought smartphones with each set costing Rs 6,000.

“While Rs 12 lakh will be spent on buying smartphones, another Rs 4 lakh will go into buying 800-odd students data packs,” said JU registrar Snehamanju Basu, the convenor of the committee.

The students will be bought data packs for three months and the university will have their packs recharged after students share details of their service providers.

The meeting also discussed the possibility of engaging couriers to send study materials to those who live in remote locations that do not have any Internet connectivity.

“The proposals were discussed whether audio and video CDs of lectures could be couriered to those students, considering the extreme constraints they are encountering. We have to see how far this would be feasible,” said Basu.