Awareness programme on technology for village folk to promote production

Hiran H. SENEWIRATNE

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE: The Government is planning to provide scientific and technical assistance to villagers to develop micro and small industries under the Vidatha programme.

Under the Vidatha programme it provides opportunities to such industrialists to use modern technology to improve productivity and standards, Minister of Science and Technology, Tissa Vitharana told the Daily News.

Under the Vidatha Programme, the Government will establish Vidatha centres equipped with computers promoting micro, small and medium size enterprises at rural level.

This would enable the villagers to use modern technology especially to use computers to communicate local and foreign scientists through the Internet, Minister said.

He said that they can have a knowledge in Sinhala and Tamil on these subjects and at present they are now in the process of recruiting computer operators to take the programme ahead.

The Ministry is expecting to set up 323 Vidatha Centres around the country and 110 centres will be set up this year. These centres will be posted with science and technology graduates. More than 400 science graduates to be recruited for the entire programme.

Minister Vitharana said that science and technology graduates would disseminate new technology that has been developed in universities and research institutes to the people in the villages.

The Ministry will also promote new and modern technology through the Industrial Technological Institute (ITI).

Minister said that in the context of the falling paddy prices the Vidatha programme has taken steps to take the rice based food product technology to the villages where paddy is in abundance.

ITI has developed technology to higher standard enabling to manufacture cakes, biscuits, noodles, breakfast food, sweets and many more not using wheat flour.

Further it also developed a new and improved technology for the kitul industry to increase the income by eight per cent of the people involved in the business. The Ministry held more than 20 training programmes for kitul growing areas, he said.

Further, the Ministry is in the process of transferring new technology in Moneragala and Bible area lime growers enabling them to export dried lime to Middle East countries, he said.