Digital Literacy Programme launched in Assam

Guwahati, August 24 : Making one person in every family digitally literate as a core component, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal launched Digital Literacy Programme in 126 Gram Panchayats of 126 Legislative Assembly Constituencies at a function held at the conference hall of Assam Secretariat on Wednesday.

The programme has been launched to leverage information and communication technology for spreading digital literacy to every household of Assam.

“Through Digital Literacy Programme we envisage to make every citizen, even the poorest of the poor to be digitally empowered and use digital technologies for meaningful actions in their life. We also want to use technologies to bridge the digital gap and create awareness among people at every nook and corner of the State about Government schemes and programmes digitally,” Sonowal said.

“This will also be a step towards making Team Assam and harnessing all its potentials in the fields of sports, art and culture and making optimum use of the human resources through extensive use of Information and Technology”, Sonowal said.

He also said that the digital literacy would be an engine of growth in the socio-economic, cultural, spiritual spheres and would go a long way in skill development.

Sonowal, however warned against the misuse of digital technologies and asked the concerned departments to conduct training programme for the citizens so that they can tackle the life situation using technologies and not be bogged down by them.

“Through Digital Literacy Programme, Assam can be empowered and growth and development of the State can accelerated”, Sonowal quipped.

It may be mentioned that under the programme, 126 Gram Panchayats one from each Legislative Assembly Constituency have been selected for the initial 100 days of the programme and subsequently the programme will be replicated all over the State.

As a part of the Digital Literacy programme, a training beginning August 26 till December 30, 2016 wherein each beneficiary will be trained for 10 days, 2 hours per day in Assamese, English and Bengali.

Minister for Information and Technology Keshab Mahanta while speaking on the occasion urged upon MLAs to take a proactive role in spreading an awareness about digital literacy in their respective constituencies.

Chief Secretary V.K. Pipersenia, Additional Chief Secretary V.S. Bhaskar, MD Amtron M.K. Yadav, Commissioner Dr. K.K. Dwivedi along with a host of senior officers were present on the occasion.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)