Amreli (Gujarat), May 1 (IANS) Gujarat celebrated its 49th foundation day Thursday with Chief Minister Narendra Modi announcing e-connectivity to all 590 village councils in Amreli district of Saurashtra region. “Gujarat is the only state in Asia to have such a network,” Modi said at a function here while dedicating the first ever ‘e-gram district’ of the country.

As many as 207 village community service centres have started operations, Modi said adding e-connectivity has played a revolutionary role in the agriculture economy and rural life.

He interacted with villagers through video-conferencing and released a Google Gujarati page by common service centre ‘E-Gram Vishwagram Society’.

“The Google search page in Gujarati will establish the glory of Gujarat and our mother tongue,” Modi said.

During the dialogue with women, the chief minister said technology is a powerful medium for rural youth and it would be instrumental for their development.

“E-connectivity will provide copies of 7/12, 8-A (kinds of land documents) online apart from other services,” Panchayat Minister Narottambhai Patel said.

Principal Secretary Varesh Sinha spoke about the planning and achievements in e-governance. As many as 13,693 panchayats or village councils have computers and sarpanch and village secretaries are trained to operate computers, he said.

The foundation day celebrations began in Amreli, about 300 km from Ahmedabad, with Modi garlanding a statue of Jivraj Mehta, the state’s first chief minister who hailed from this town.