The State Government would set up a Panchayat Library-cum-Infotainment Centre in each gram panchayat to cater to the need of rural people to develop a society with cultural vitality and ethos.
In the first phase, 1,000 gram panchats will be covered during 2018-19 and the rest GPs would be taken up in next two years.
District Collectors have already been asked to hold Gram Sabhas for setting up such units, said officials in the Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water department.
As it has become imperative to develop an intellectual fervour at gram panchayat level with an objective of "Empowerment, Enlightenment and Entertainment" to percolate the message of development, the Panchayat Library and Infotainment Centre will go a long way in this regard, feel officials.
Such centres would help rural people to keep pace with the multi-faceted information needs of everyday life. Such libraries can play the role of a catalyst bringing tremendous social and economic changes in the rural society.
It will reduce the intellectual divide by providing access to books, information and internet facilities to rural youths of each district and above all disseminate information on all kinds of welfare schemes, agriculture, rural marketing etc.
Due to ignorance in the rural areas, more particularly in the PESA / KBK districts
having preponderance of tribal population, vulnerable groups like women, physically challenged and other marginal sections would be benefited much
Since information has become national resource, information-based society would increase the quality of life of the rural people to a large extent, said an official.
The units will also provide a platform to the PRI members, grass root functionaries, farmers, women as well as the youth to know regarding Government schemes.
Various audio visual training and learning modules in a ‘Do-How’ mode will certainly arouse considerable interest among the target group, said the official.