All DCs asked to expedite land acquisition process
*Forest, PWD, PDD to shift utilities on priority basis
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Nov 15: Nearly 300 uncovered villages including border areas of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will get 4G mobile services as per the decision taken by the Union Government and necessary directions have been issued to all the Deputy Commissioners so that service providers don’t face any difficult in early start and timely completion of work.
The Union Cabinet, few months back, approved a project for providing 4G mobile services in all uncovered villages across the country in order to promote delivery of various e-governance services, banking services, telemedicine, tele education etc through mobile broadband and generate employment in rural areas.
As per the official data, there are nearly 300 uncovered villages in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and finally people of these areas will be able to avail the benefits of 4G mobile services as Government has issued directions to all the Deputy Commissioners for providing proactive support to the service providers regarding allocation of State land for mobile towers, speedy clearance of sites in forest areas, lease/acquisition of sites, permissions and power connectivity.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Jio and Airtel authorities have been asked to share the village wise list of the areas to be covered under the project for saturation of 4G mobile services with all the Deputy Commissioners so that Deputy Commissioners can evaluate the covered and left over areas for ascertaining the priority to be covered in first instance.
Laying stress on better coordination and cooperation between the administration and service providers, the Government has asked the Deputy Commissioners to provide hand-holding support and logistic/technical requirements to the mobile service providers so that the dark and shadow areas are covered within the targeted deadline.
Further, all the Deputy Commissioners have been directed to clear the land acquisition requirements for mobile towers on priority basis wherever the State land is required. “However, if as per the technical/operational requirements the service providers require private land the compensation should be assessed and disbursed on priority”, read the instructions of the Government.
Moreover, the BSNL, Jio and Airtel authorities have been asked to ensure that the survey for the villages to be covered for providing the mobile connectivity is done with the participation of field officers from the Revenue Department so that the priority areas will get covered in first phase, sources said, adding stress has also been laid on giving top priority to border areas for mobile connectivity so that people living in such areas remain connected and avail the benefits of the Government easily.
The Public Works Department, Forest and Power Development Departments have been asked for expediting the issuance of No-Objection Certificates and shifting of utilities wherever requested by the service providers on priority basis so that the progress of the project will not get hampered.
As far as Jammu region is concerned, Divisional Commissioner Ramesh Kumar has directed the service providers to give special priority to the hilly districts such as Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban, Rajouri and Poonch and parts of Reasi, Udhampur and Kathua as the Lieutenant Governor during visit to these districts gave directions to cover remote and far-flung areas for mobile connectivity as the first priority so that public don’t face any inconvenience and can connect easily for availing services.
Moreover, he has asked the service providers to also cover the tourist destinations in first phase along with better internet connectivity as this will also boost the footfall of the tourists.
As per the information available with EXCELSIOR, the Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar has brought to the notice of Government that deadline for providing of Jio fiber service to Marwah and Dacchan areas has been extended and in view of ongoing winter season the work may get hampered. Moreover, GREF authorities’ permission for extending the network in Paddar and Chattroo is pending.
The BSNL network connectivity is very low at several stretches of the Doda-Kishtwar Highway while as in Samba there are 17 dark and 50 low connectivity areas and the issue was raised by the villages during Back to Village Phase-4.
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