Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Oct 1: Panchayats across Jammu and Kashmir are not ready for being provided with high-speed internet facility. Maximum are without PDD power supply.
According to an official report, a copy of which is with The Straight Line, maximum Gram panchayats are without power supply provided by Power Development Department (PDD). The report claims that of 4290 Panchayats, 1091 have been provided with high-speed internet connectivity but activation has been done in only 665 Panchayats. 426 others are service ready.
Of the 665 Panchayats, wi-fi Hot Spots have been activated in 367 Gram Panchayats. VSAT has been installed in 670 Gram Panchayats. According to the official document, 3195 Panchayats are likely to be given internet cover in the Phase-II. What makes providing internet connectivity difficult is the poor maintenance of the Gram Panchayats.
According to the report, lot of garbage, Cow Dung is stored in Gram Panchayats. In some cases, difficult approach to some dirty Gram Panchayats results in poor maintenance of the Gigabyte Passive Optical Network (GPON). Poor custodianship of the village level workers results in theft and damages to the installed GPON equipment like solar panel, earthing wire etc. in Gram Panchayats, says the report.
The report has said that some buildings are damaged and hence, the chance of theft of the GPON equipment increase manifold. Report further says that during daily routine visit of the officers during raining season, they found that a number of Gram Panchayat buildings have leakage of rainy water inside the equipment rooms. This has damaged the equipment at several places and hence, there is no point in keeping equipment in such gram Panchayats
Reports says that this needs immediate attention on war footing to repair the buildings. It mentions that one Gram Panchayat building of kanhal of Bishnah Block is at the verge of collapse which may not only risk the lives of maintenance staff but also damage the whole installed equipment. It has been suggested that concerned BDOs as nodal officer should be intimated to get maintenance of Gram Panchayats done regularly.
Maintenance is must to ensure that all the Gram Panchayats are provided with high-speed internet connectivity and there is no scope of equipment getting damaged. Pointing towards another problem, the reports says that Sarpanches/BDOs at some GPs are not allowing the provision of commercial FTTH connections on the pretext of official letter from BDOs /secretary RDD. It has been said that BDOs/ Sarpanches must be educated regarding Bharat net projects through their respective sections to avoid delay in commercial FTTH activity.
