In the areas where we are already working, we are in close touch with rural people and we found that there is inadequate understanding and participation in Panchayat governance and gram sabha. There is also very little awareness of the villages, their history, terrain, people, their local culture, availability of expertise, etc. The Digital Panchayat program will provide data centers and Websites where the information regarding Panchayat workings, budget allocation, projects, names of office bearers etc. shall be published in Tamil and will be transparent. Blogs, discussion Forum etc will be provided for people to interact and participate. Data centers would be used to update Websites with various useful commercial and other information.
For our first initiative, we have started with 15 Panchayats in Chinnamanur District and have collected data from six Panchayats, namely, Ramasaminayakanpatti in Chinnamanur Block and U.Ammapatti in Uthamapalayam Block, etc. We will be hosting the data in our server with the photographs and set up a digital centre in their locality with SHG software and opportunities for online education, etc. We have allocated Rs.1 Lakh for the Digital Centre to be set up in these panchayats.
Further, we aim to create web sites for a minimum of 100 Panchayats in Tamil Nadu in 2012-13 in the different districts we work.