Bhubaneswar: The ambitious plan of the Ministry of Telecom to provide last mile connectivity to all the gram panchayats (GPs) in the country including Odisha seems to be missing the deadlines and now it is very likely to miss the March 2020 deadline.
The ministry after initial delays has planned to cover all gram panchayats in Odisha with optical fibre connectivity under the BharatNet programme of the ministry by the end of March 2020. However, data obtained from the ministry through an RTI application by this correspondent tells a different story.
The ministry in its response to the RTI plea, which sought information on the performance on the scheme in Odisha, hinted that more than half of the work as envisioned under the scheme is yet to be completed which makes the March 2020 deadline a Herculean task to achieve. The scheme started way back in 2012-13 when the state started receiving funds.
According to the ministry, a total of 7,070 GPs in Odisha have been included for covering them with Optic Fibre Network for providing infrastructure for broadband connectivity. However, after almost eight years of the launch of the programme, a total of 3,682 GPs (52 per cent) are service-ready in the state. On the other hand, a total of 3,382 GPs – around 48 per cent of the target – are still out of its coverage. The ministry claims that out of the 7,070 panchayats merely 107 have their Wi-Fi services operational. The Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), the Union government undertaking executing the plan, claims that the states have the flexibility to undertake enhanced network architecture. However, the cost for the same should be borne by the state government. The BBNL claimed that the state has been receiving funds for the scheme since 2012-13 and by the end of 2019-20 it has received over Rs 437 crore.
The ministry in the Parliament had claimed that work under this scheme is arduous keeping in mind the rural areas.
In a reply in Lok Sabha, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad November 27, 2019 had said, “Implementation of BharatNet is very challenging as the project is of mega nature and the GPs are widely dispersed across the country in rural and remote areas. All out efforts are being made to expeditiously implement the project.”
The Union Cabinet July 19, 2017 approved a modified strategy for implementing BharatNet which, inter-alia, includes providing broadband connectivity to all GPs by March 2019 which was later extended to March 2020. In the Phase-I of the project, GPs are envisaged to be connected on 100 Mbps speed. However, in Phase-II, to cover the remaining GPs, provision of 1 Gbps bandwidth in case of wired media (OFC) and minimum 100 Mbps bandwidth scalable up to 1 Gbps in case of wireless media (Radio) at a GP have been decided.