Govt urges BSNL to expedite work in bid to boost connectivity in Gram Panchayats

Kolkata: In a bid to extend e-governance to the grassroot level as early as possible, the state government wrote to the BSNL authorities urging them to expedite the work of connecting all the Gram Panchayats in the state with optical fibre cables for broadband internet service.

With the completion of the task of connecting all the Gram Panchayats through fibre cables for a high-speed dedicated internet service for e-governance, the feature of video conference is one of the many facilities that would be available to the people of Gram Panchayats. This comes at the time when the state finance department has stressed that "the facility of video conference should be used as far as possible" to avoid frequent meetings at the state headquarters or regional headquarters where field officers need to turn out.

According to a senior official of the state government, around 800 Gram Panchayats in Bengal have been connected with optical fibre cables for broadband internet service so far and a target has been set to take the total to around 1,000 by mid August.

The official stated that a pan-India project has been taken up to connect Gram Panchayats with optical fibre cables. The same project is also getting implemented in Bengal. "We want timely completion of these projects for which the work needs to be expedited," the official said adding that they had meetings with the BSNL authorities in this connection. "The BSNL authorities have assured us that necessary steps will be taken in this connection," the official said.

Currently, there is broadband internet service through optical fibre cables up to the exchanges at block level.

Now, the initiative to extend the same up to the Gram Panchayat level will ensure video conference facilities between two Gram Panchayats. At the same time, District Magistrate can also hold meetings through video conferences in the Gram

Panchayats. It may be mentioned that the e-governance system will reach the grassroot level and the task at the Gram Panchayats level will gain further momentum. The state government is extending all sorts of support for carrying out the work smoothly. The official said lamp posts are being used to lay the fibre optical cables.

It may be mentioned that the Mamata Banerjee government has set up the e-governance department and the state has witnessed a huge development in this sector in the past seven years.