CICs empower rural masses with IT

Gangtok, June 03 (UNI) IT empowerment in rural areas through Community Information Centres (CIC) is gaining momentum in Sikkim.

The newly acquired knowledge about IT is being used by rural people, especially farmers and panchayats, for downloading tender forms, viewing commodities prices and for knowing developments around the globe, said Mr Birendra Chettri, State Infromatics Officer.

There were 487 CICs in Northeast and Sikkim alone has 46 CICs, he said adding that the highest CIC in the country was recently established at Nathula in Sikkim at an altitude of around 15000 ft.

''The need of the hour is to utilize the facility more comprehensively and to go for information dissemination in the rural areas,'' he said.

The CICs were launched in the northeast states, including Sikkim, in 2001 with funds from centrally sponsored schemes. National Informatics Centre (NIC) looked after the technical aspects while the state IT departments looked after the administration. CICs were envisioned to become the knowledge powers by the Planning Commission in its India Vision 2020 document, he added.

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