Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo today stressed on the telecommunication BSNL to saturate the 4G connectivity in the remote areas of the UT as per the objectives of the National Broadband Mission here.
The Chief Secretary was speaking in a State Broadband Committee meeting held to review the implementation of this plan in J&K.
The meeting was attended by Commissioner Secretary, H&UDD; Commissioner Secretary, IT; Secretary, R&B; GM, BSNL; Chief Engineer, PMGSY besides other officers and representatives of telecom companies.
Dulloo enjoined upon the implementation agencies to pace up their work of installation of the communication towers across the designated locations. He asked for bringing improved communication facilities including the 4G network to such areas without any further delay as envisaged under this nationwide programme.
He advised the IT Department to act as a nodal agency for resolving all the bottlenecks hindering the smooth implementation of this programme here. He asked them to review its progress regularly so that the mission is taken to its logical conclusion by covering all the identified villages.
Dulloo also asked for having enhanced coordination among different departments for making the towers functional soon. He called for making necessary changes in the RoW rules after studying those in vogue at other such places. He directed for effective restoration and rebuilding of the roads and paths immediately after completion of cable laying works.
During this meeting it was given out that to enable fast track growth of digital communications infrastructure, bridging the digital divide for digital empowerment and inclusion and providing the affordable and universal access of broadband for all the government envisaged the National Broadband Mission.
The objectives of the mission includes provisioning of universality, affordability and availability of high speed and highly reliable broadband access to all, as was added during the meeting.
Regarding its progress here in the UT it was apprised that the foundation work is going on at 96 locations, tower erection at 13 places. Moreover Foundation work at 175 locations has already been completed in addition to tower erection at 109 locations.
The meeting also had discussion on Call before you Dig portal, Digital Communication Readiness Index, BharatNet besides several other relevant issues concerning the instant matter.
Meanwhile, CS chaired the 34th meeting of the Union Territory Level Coordination Committee (UTLCC) convened by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)to discuss issues related to unauthorised deposits, fraudulent activities of unregulated entities and the sharing of Market Intelligence among stakeholders.
During the meeting, Chief Secretary impressed upon the bank authorities to create ample awareness among public about the possible ways of financial defraud. He advised them to regularly issue do’s and don’ts for public to abide by. He even called for holding outreach programs among students and SHG members so that each household here gets acquainted about how to safeguard themselves from getting duped by these fraudsters.
During this meeting, Dulloo also reviewed action points including conduct of police sensitization programs, activities for public awareness generation, progress made in pending fraud cases of unauthorized deposits and digital lending.
He called for more effective action on these fronts to safeguard public money and called for wider usage of Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes (BUDS) Act, 2019.
On the occasion the GM, RBI, Neeraj Kumar threw light on various steps that can be taken to tackle the rise of fraudulent activities in online sphere and called for collaborative approach among all stakeholders to mitigate such frauds.
Recent developments in frauds related to unauthorised deposits and lending apps reported in Jammu and Kashmir were also discussed in the meeting.
The meeting was attended by senior officials of J&K Government and police department including Special DG Crime, A.K Choudhary; Principal Secretary, Home and Finance Departments, Santosh D Vaidya; ADGP,CID, Nitish Kumar; Secretary, Revenue, Prasanna Ramaswamy G; Secretary, Law, Achal Sethi, Registrar of Societies, Arun Kumar Manhas; Joint Director, Information, Vevaik Puri, Registrar of Companies, Jammu, Haamid Bukhari, and Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Rakesh Dubey.
Officials of RBI and SEBI also attended the meeting either in person or through video conferencing.