PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Dehradun
Chief secretary Anand Bardhan has said that internet connectivity through BharatNet should be made available to all Panchayat buildings of the State. He gave the order while chairing the ninth meeting of the State Broadband Committee at the State secretariat on Wednesday.
He said that in the areas where Panchayat buildings are under construction, connectivity should be temporarily provided in nearby government buildings, such as primary schools or Anganwadi centres.
The CS said that connectivity should be provided by laying fibre cables in the areas without road access. He also called for other options to be considered and utilized for this purpose. The CS directed the ITDA to handle the State government’s RoW portal. He also directed the departments related to drinking water, power, gas and communications, which involve road digging work and laying of underground lines, to integrate their systems with the RoW portal immediately.
In the meeting, the CS said any problems encountered during the connectivity saturation work should be resolved by interacting directly with the secretary concerned. He also directed that district-level committee meetings should be held within the stipulated time. The CS directed that the monthly progress report on the connectivity status should be sent to the secretary IT.
The CS asked all telecom companies to address the problem of call drops. He called for identifying and addressing black spots across the State where calls frequently drop. The CS said that during the Yatra season, temporary mobile towers should be installed along all the Yatra routes to ensure connectivity until permanent towers are installed.
Secretary Nitesh Kumar Jha, C Ravishankar, officials of Central Telecom department, representatives of private mobile network service providers and others attended the meeting.
