Ensure digital connectivity in rural, remote areas: Himachal chief secy

Himachal Pradesh chief secretary Prabodh Saxena on Thursday asked the officers to take necessary steps to provide assured high speed and reliable digital connectivity in remote and rural areas of the state.

Presiding over a meeting of the State Broadband Committee, under the National Broadband Mission (NBM) here, he asked for time bound efforts to strengthen fiber connectivity in rural areas and provide quality digital connectivity to ensure universal access of broadband facilities to the people.

Directions were issued to expedite the cases of grant of clearances under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) to achieve the targets under the 4G saturation project in a time bound manner.

He also asked the officers to take necessary steps for the integration of additional data layers in PM Gatishakti State Master Plan Portal.

He said that the role of digital connectivity is important for the inclusive development of all the sectors and facilitation of quality broadband connectivity in rural and urban areas will ensure e-governance, transparency, financial inclusion and ease of doing business. This will also speed up socio-economic development.

National Broadband Mission is required to design and implement the strategy to be adopted by all stakeholders to achieve the goal of 'Broadband for All' said the chief secretary.

He also gave necessary directions to the concerned authorities for providing high speed broadband facility in all rural areas and increasing the fiber network.

Representatives of the Cellular Operations Authority of India and the Digital Infrastructure Providers Association attended the meeting through video conferencing.