UP Free Laptop Yojana (Free Device Distribution for Students)

What is UP Free Laptop Yojana today?

"UP Free Laptop Yojana" is the name that has stuck in public memory, but the two things people mean by it are different, and confusing them wastes a lot of time at government offices.

The older free laptop distribution, the one that gave laptops to students who had passed class 10 and class 12 to belonged to an earlier state government's programme. That distribution is not the scheme operating in Uttar Pradesh today, and no school student can apply for a laptop under it now.

The live programme is DigiShakti. According to digishakti.up.gov.in, the portal administers the technical empowerment of young people studying in Uttar Pradesh, beginning with the 2021-22 academic session, in Hindi, "उ0प्र0 में सत्र 2021-22 में अध्ययनरत युवाओं के तकनीकी सशक्तिकरण". DigiShakti distributes free tablets and smartphones to students enrolled in recognised institutions, and it is run by the Department of Information Technology and Electronics alongside the higher and technical education departments.

So if you are a student in Uttar Pradesh looking for a free device from the state, DigiShakti is the programme to track, and digishakti.up.gov.in is the only portal that matters.

Who is eligible for a free device under DigiShakti?

You can receive a device if:

• You are enrolled as a student in a recognised institution in Uttar Pradesh. A degree college, a university, a polytechnic, an ITI, or a notified skill training institution.
• Your institution has uploaded your record to the DigiShakti portal with correct Aadhaar and enrolment details.
• You have an active mobile number on that record for distribution alerts.

You are not eligible if:

• You are a school student in class 10 or class 12 hoping for the old laptop distribution. That programme is not running.
• Your institution is not recognised or not affiliated, and therefore cannot upload data to the portal at all.
• You have already received a device under the programme. Distribution is one device per student, and Aadhaar-based de-duplication catches repeats.
• You are enrolled outside Uttar Pradesh, even if you are a resident of the state.

The most important point for a student to understand is that eligibility is mediated entirely by the institution. There is no route by which an individual student can register themselves and be added.

What documents do you need?

Check the spelling of your name and the digits of your Aadhaar as recorded by your college office. A mismatch there is the single most common reason a genuinely enrolled student is missing from a distribution list.

How to apply for the UP free device scheme

1. Confirm your enrolment record with your college, university, polytechnic or ITI office — name, father's name, Aadhaar number, course, year and mobile number, all exactly as they should appear.
2. Ask the institution's DigiShakti nodal officer to upload or verify your record on digishakti.up.gov.in. This is the actual application step; there is no student-facing form.
3. Track your status by logging in with your registered mobile number on the DigiShakti portal or app once your institution confirms the upload.
4. Attend the distribution camp announced by your institution, carrying your student identity card and Aadhaar, and collect the device against signature.
5. Keep the acknowledgement issued at the camp. It is your proof of receipt if any query arises later.

How is the device distributed?

Distribution happens through camps organised at or by the institution, not through a government counter that individuals can walk into. The state pushes the allotment to the institution based on the verified data, and the institution calls students in batches. Devices are handed over against identity verification and signature.

Because the whole chain runs through the institution, a student who has changed colleges, taken a year off, or been struck off the roll for attendance will usually find their record has fallen out of the upload. That is fixed at the college, not at a district office.

Why students miss out, and what to do

• Record never uploaded. The commonest reason. Ask the nodal officer to confirm the upload rather than assume it happened.
• Aadhaar number or name mismatch between the institution's record and Aadhaar. Correct the college record; Aadhaar is the reference.
• Duplicate detected because a similar record exists from a previous course or institution.
• Mobile number inactive, so distribution alerts never arrived.
• Institution not recognised, in which case no upload is possible and the issue is with the institution's status, not with the student.
• Portal under maintenance. The DigiShakti portal has scheduled maintenance windows during which uploads and status checks are unavailable. Wait for the window to close before concluding something is wrong.

Help and grievance redressal

• Your institution's DigiShakti nodal officer, the first and, in most cases, the only office that can fix a missing or wrong record.
• digishakti.up.gov.in: status check and official notices, including maintenance announcements.
• Jansunwai-Samadhan portal, jansunwai.up.nic.in; register a complaint if your institution has not uploaded your data despite repeated requests, or if anyone demands money for a device. Complaints are filed with mobile OTP and can be tracked and reminded through the portal or its Android app.

The device is free. No student should pay a college official, a distribution staff member or an agent anything to be included in the list.

How to check your application status

Because there is no individual application form under DigiShakti, "checking status" really means checking whether your institution's upload of your record has gone through and whether a device has been allotted against it. There are two ways to do this.

1. Log in on the DigiShakti portal. Go to digishakti.up.gov.in and use the student login with your registered mobile number (the number your institution recorded on the portal, not necessarily your current number if it has since changed). A successful login that shows your enrolment and course details confirms your record has been uploaded; if the login fails or shows no record, the upload has not happened yet.
2. Watch for the SMS/portal alert. Once a device batch is allotted to your institution, DigiShakti pushes an alert to the mobile number on file, and the same status typically becomes visible against your record on the portal (uploaded, verified, allotted, or distributed). If you never receive an alert around the time your institution announces a distribution camp, treat that as a sign your record may not have cleared verification, and follow up with the nodal officer before the camp date rather than after.

If the portal shows your record as uploaded but with no allotment for an extended period, or if the login itself does not recognise your mobile number, the fix does not lie with any state helpline or district office. Go back to your institution's DigiShakti nodal officer, who is the only party that can re-check or correct your entry on the portal, since the state side only processes what the institution has already submitted. Keep a copy of your enrolment number and the mobile number you expect to be registered when you raise the query, so the office can look you up quickly.