The Andhra Pradesh government is planning to set up digital libraries at the village level, with a high-speed internet facility to help with the online classes of students and support the IT and employees of other sectors working from home.
The move by Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy comes at a time when fears over a third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic loom large and the uncertainty continues as to when the IT and other sectors' offices would resume pre-pandemic operations.
Numerous techies from Andhra Pradesh, who form a considerable portion of the IT industry manpower in hubs like Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai moved back to their home towns and villages when the pandemic began in the summer of 2020. Many of them continue to operate from their native places.
During a review meeting on the IT sector on Tuesday, Reddy asked officials to take measures for high-speed internet connectivity in the villages to support the Work From Home concept.
Interestingly, when the virus reared its head in April last year, Reddy was among the first government heads to declare that “we have to learn to live with Covid-19.”
Chief Minister Reddy said that digital libraries will be set up in all the village panchayats across the state. Officials were directed to prepare an action plan for beginning the construction of 4,530 digital libraries on August 15. The construction of libraries under the first phase, which will cost about Rs 140 crore, is expected to be completed by December.
The Chief Minister instructed the officials to equip each digital library with three desktops, UPS, desktop barcode printer, scanner, laser printer, unlimited bandwidth internet along with tables, chairs, lights, fans, storage racks, newspapers and magazines.
Reddy wants the digital libraries to be useful for the school and college students too by equipping them with study material related to their courses and common entrance tests.
The Chief Minister also wants uninterrupted internet facility provided to the Village Secretariats and Rytu Bharosa Kendras (farmer support centres).
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