As many as 15 lakh neo e-literates across the State will be given mobile phones free of cost by next March, under a government-sponsored programme to promote regular use of the Internet and bridge the digital divide.
Education Minister P.K.Abdu Rabb told a press conference here on Tuesday that the programme, taken up under the Total e-literacy campaign, was aimed at using Internet-enabled knowledge to empower the masses. He said all the neo e-literates completing a 10-hour course and clearing an online examination would be given an e-mail- enabled Bharat Phone by BSNL free of cost.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy is scheduled to inaugurate the distribution of phones here on Wednesday. As many as 5,000 persons would be issued the phones by Onam, Mr. Rabb said. The programme, taken up in association with the P.N. Panicker Foundation, would be implemented in a phased manner across the State.
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The Minister said efforts were on to declare 30 panchayats in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Palakkad, and Kozhikode districts as total e-literate panchayats by December this year. The first phase of the campaign would conclude by March 2015 with the declaration of 100 panchayats as e-literate.