Deadline over: Only 176 gram panchayats in Haryana have Wi-Fi zones

In Gurugram alone, out of 203 panchayats, only 41 panchayats along the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway have Wi-Fi service, although defunct as the access points that transmit and receive data have been not been functional for over six months, district administration officers said.

In the last two years, after it announced that there would be one Wi-Fi zone in each of the 6,078 gram panchayats of the state by 2019, the government has only been able to provide this service in 176 gram panchayats.

In the last two years, after it announced that there would be one Wi-Fi zone in each of the 6,078 gram panchayats of the state by 2019, the government has only been able to provide this service in 176 gram panchayats. (HT File (Representative Image))

In Gurugram alone, out of 203 panchayats, only 41 panchayats along the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway have Wi-Fi service, although defunct as the access points that transmit and receive data have been not been functional for over six months, district administration officers said.

“The Wi-Fi has not been working in the area (Farukkhnagar block) due to damages in the optical fibre network, which was laid three-four years back. Also, the main server at the block-level, through which the Internet is provided, has not been functioning properly for months now,” said a district administration officer, who did not wish to be identified.

“If the first access point, through which data is circulated to different villages, has low bandwidth, how can the end-point be functional,” the officer said.

When HT contacted Ankur Gupta, principal secretary (department of information technology electronics and communication), he said, “For the upkeep of the optical fibre network, the Central government has appointed Common Service Centre (CSC) as the main agency. The mandate is no longer with our department.”

In August this year, BBNL awarded the broadband connectivity contract to CSC e-governance services, a department set up by Union ministry of electronics and information technology to provide easy access of government services to the rural population. CSCs are present in every gram panchayat for delivery of social welfare schemes.

Stating that service providers should have proactively looked into the issue of damaged optical fibres, Haryana CSC head Manish Aggarwal said, “Currently, we are in the verification process to see where the issues are being faced. The maintenance work will be carried out later.”

BBNL state head Rajeev Narang said, “There are no technical glitches at the service-providing end. The optical fibres remain damaged most of the time due to the ongoing road-widening projects in Gurugram. In rural areas, we have noticed that the solar panels, through which batteries of the servers derive power, were stolen.”

Agreeing that the maintenance of optical fibre network is a big challenge, assistant general manager of the Haryana State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (HARTRON) Rajiv Monga said that since the BharatNet project is going through a transition, from BSNL to CSC, it will take some time to address the issue of upkeep.

According to him, the project should have been solely handled by the state government. “We asked the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) under the IT ministry to transfer the entire project to the state government, but they decided to give it to CSCs. Currently, most of the villages in Haryana where Wi-Fi zones are functional are funded by the state government,” said Monga.