IANS

Thiruvananthapuram, May 2:  Gram panchayats in Kerala would soon have their own custom-made web portals with all the information relating to the panchayat in Malayalam.

Akshaya, a Kerala government initiative, is ready to implement a pilot project to establish panchayat-level web portals with people's participation in select panchayats in Kannur in north Kerala with financial and technical assistance from the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The panchayats that would get their own web portals initially are: Azheekode, Pinarayi, Muzhappilangad, Eramam-Kuttoor, Pappinissery, Sreekantapuram, Payam, Maloor and Vengad.

Besides these, the Thalassery municipality and the Kannur district panchayat would also get a web portal each as part of the pilot project.

The portals would function from the Akshaya centres in each area and would feature local history, information about prominent individuals, organizations, institutions and places of special interest in the area.

In a statement to the press issued Monday, Akshaya director T.K. Manzoor said that the project is being implemented with the objective of providing greater amount of information.

"The pilot project in Kannur would be extended to the rest of the state if found successful. Akshaya has provision for providing information to the people in Malayalam. This is one of its core objectives. The local level web portals are being set up with this objective," he said.

Permission would be given for inclusion of local advertisements and Yellow Pages on the web portal. A local level call centre facility to provide information relating to the locality is also part of the plan.

The pilot project would be fully funded by UNESCO, as would the entire technical support.

This is for the first time that portals are being created to cater to the local level needs of the people with people's participation.