Telecom department pulled up for delay in laying optical fibre

NEW DELHI: The parliamentary standing committee on information technology has pulled up the telecom department for its sluggish pace in laying down optical fibre across the country, especially in the areas affected by Left-wing extremism, to boost broadband connectivity under the National Optical Fibre Network ( NOFN) project.

The department of telecom (DoT) must pay serious attention to implementing the project and erecting mobile phone towers in the Maoist areas, the standing committee has said. "While the project was to be completed within a period of two years only three pilot projects have been completed," the panel has told the DoT, referring to the 20,000-crore project approved by the Cabinet in October 2011 with the objective of digitally connecting 2.5 lakh gram panchayats to provide services such as e-health, e-education and e-governance.

An analysis of utilisation of the 24,000-crore Universal Services Obligation fund, accumulated from a levy of 5% charge on the adjusted gross revenue earned by mobile network service providers annually, shows that the DoT has not been up to the noble endeavour for which the fund was set up, the committee has said.

The standing committee also chided the DoT for its poor performance in rolling out the rural broadband wireline scheme launched in 2009.