Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee talks to chief minister Arjun Munda during the video conferencing. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Ranchi, June 11: Chief minister Arjun Munda today invited Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to visit Jharkhand during the video conferencing session with different chief ministers.

The video conferencing was a part of the Vidya Vahini Project launched by the Centre.

Munda expressed his gratitude to the Union information and broadcasting minister Arun Shourie for making the project a success.

Hazaribagh, represented by external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha, has been selected as the target district of the project.

During the video conferencing Munda told Vajpayee: “Twenty high schools in the district have been chosen for the project. The schools have been provided with computers, internet and other equipment to connect with one another. Selected teachers are undergoing extensive training.”

The video conferencing suffered a technical snag for a short time. The colour went hazy and the audio quality was also bad. So during the programme the conversation between the two could not be heard.

Munda told Vajpayee about the development projects undertaken by the state government.

“All 22 districts have been connected by the internet. Video conferencing is done at regular intervals. The government has also contributed to develop cyber literacy in the state prior to the launch of the Vidya Vahini Project,” he said.Arun Shourie, while starting the programme, briefed the Prime Minister about the details of the project.

He said how the project would prove to be a success story for many schools in the villages and suburbs of different states.

The idea is to link all states with one another and children should interact with their counterparts in different states, he said.

Vajpayee called the video conferencing a chamatkar. “The project will educate the rural students in the hinterlands and make them computer-savvy,” he said.

Vajpayee interacted with other state chief ministers. Andhra chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu told him about the cyber revolution. Naidu told the Prime Minister about the present condition and also suggested him to use radio channels to spread the word around.