Naidu Palns To Take Net To Remote Villages In A Year

The techno-savvy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Chandrababu Naidu is out to prove that access to technology is not a privilege of urbanites alone. If his plans succeed, then a farmer in a remote village in the state may soon be able to avail of the latest knowledge in any field of his interest.

Andhra Pradesh intends to connect all its villages to the Internet within a year. Disclosing this before mediapersons here yesterday, Naidu said his administration was laying maximum emphasis on the development of information technology.

Naidu was here to campaign for candidates of BJP and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) contesting the assembly elections in Orissa. The political nature of his trip notwithstanding, Naidu who is credited with a modern outlook, utilised the opportunity to talk about his state's development plans.

 

On the inclusion of Hyderabad in the itinerary of American president Bill Clinton's India visit he said he was hopeful of Clinton visiting to the city though the tour programme had not been finalised yet. He said the high level delegation accompanying Clinton included many representatives of US industry and, hence, his visit would certainly help in attracting investment to the state.

Naidu, who addressed a number of election meetings in south Orissa, said he was confident of a sweep by BPJ-BJD combine in the elections in Orissa.

He said Orissa had shown the potential to develop during the tenure of former Chief Minister the late Biju Patnaik, but successive Congress governments had not given adequate attention for the growth of the state.

The BJD president Naveen Patnaik, who was present with Naidu in the media meet, said he would take tips on development from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh if his party came to power in the election. He claimed that his would be a progressive government unlike the present Congress regime.

Meanwhile, Deltagram, a satellite messaging facility centre, was launched here yesterday to serve the people in coastal. Andhra Pradesh by the Delta Innovative Enterprises, a Tamil Nadu-based company.

R kothandaraman, managing director of the firm, told newspersons the network would connect every Indian via space and enable him to send messages whether in the same town or in another town or abroad very fast at an economical cost.

He said the sender could hand over the message to the nearest deltagram messaging centre over phone or fax or by hand and the message would be delivered over phone, by pager, by e-mail or by hand as chosen by the sender.

The messages would be delivered in 15 minutes to two hours depending upon the mode of delivery chosen by the sender. It costs just Rs 10 per message. The Deltagram has proof of delivery for every message sent, he added.

Kothandraman said the company proposed to have one hundred earth stations connecting through satellite to 3,000 towns and 40 villages all over the country.

He said at present only 5 per cent of the population was able to utilise services of modern gadgets like fax, e-mail, telephone and cellular and remaining 95 per cent could not enjoy the facility due to high cost.

"We are planning to bring the remaining 95 per cent under Deltagram services, Kothandraman said adding at present the system was hooked to Insat 2C satellite and would soon be connected to Insat 3B.

The company would be introducing within six months e-photo and e-voice services and software for these services was being prepared. He said Deltagram network was currently available in about 100 major towns and by March it would be made available in over 500 cities and towns.