Smriti Irani inaugurates ‘digital village’ in Amethi

Lucknow, Sep 1 (IANS) Union textiles minister Smriti Irani on Saturday inaugurated a ‘digital village’ in Amethi, the parliamentary constituency of Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Accompanied by district officials and BJP leaders, Irani, who unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, inaugurated the digital village at the common service centre of the Information and Technology ministry at Pindara Thakur village.

She is also scheduled to inaugurate the digital banking service under the ‘Digital India’ initiative in Amethi town after which she will return to the capital.

Under the digital village project, there would be 206 programmes available for the people. This includes a Wi-Fi Chaupal, LED bulb manufacturing, a unit to make sanitary pads and PM digital literacy initiative.

Under the digital banking service, people will be able to open bank accounts by the use of their thumb impression and the lengthy paper work and documentation would be done away with, an official said.

Irani has been grooming her one-time constituency even after her defeat at the hands of the Gandhi scion and the BJP is likely to field her again in 2019 from Amethi.

The union minister has accused the Congress president of ignoring the constituency even though the people here have been standing with the Gandhi clan through many elections.