Shillong, July 05: The meeting was held to review the BSNL services in remote villages in the rural areas of West Khasi Hills, Ri-Bhoi District, Jaintia Hills District, Garo Hills Districts and other areas especially along border of Assam and Bangladesh.
The meeting was initiated and held between Bah John F Kharshiing, Co-Chairman, Meghalaya State Planning Board, & Chairman, Grand Council of Chiefs of Meghalaya, with Shri. M. J. Chrisostom, Senior General Manager BSNL Meghalaya Telecom District, Shillong in the BSNL office in Barik, Shillong.
The meeting was a followup to the letter and note in March 2014, from Shri John F Kharshiing, Co-Chairman, Meghalaya State Planning Board, listing the C&RD Blocks, and names of a number of villages and areas which were having problems with communication.
This is a followup based on the first phase of official inspections and visits to the various C&RD Blocks by State Planning Board to a number of Blocks such as Mawshynrut Block, Nongstoin Block, Mawthadraishan Block, Mairang Block, (West Khasi Hills ) Laskien Block, Khliehriat, (Jaintia Hills), Mawryngkneng Block (East Khasi Hills) and others where the Block Development Officers, expressed their concern as to challenges they faced especially with the poor network connectivity in a number of remote villages under their jurisdiction. It may be noted that the guidelines of MGNREGS required a number of paper work to be now uploaded online. However, entire Mawshynrut C&RD Block with over 320 villages till date has no internet connectivity and very poor or practically no mobile connection.
The General Manager, BSNL, Meghalaya, informed the Co-Chairman, MSPB, that they are facing a number of challenges primarily from the construction of the National Highway (NHAI),which during widening of the Roads the contractors had snapped all the fiber optic cables, and this problem occurred both along Shillong – Guwahati and Shillong – Nongstoin. The BSNL officials requested the intervention of the State Planning Board, with the MeCEL, for use of their power lines till such time the Highway is not completed.
The other problem faced by the Govt company was that PWD was charging very high rates for laying of cables which was not possible for them to pay being a government concern, and urged the State Planning Board to help in the matter.
In connection with low signal of BSNL in certain areas of the City, the BSNL official informed Co-Chairman, MSPB, that this was because they being a Government Company, strictly adhered to the permissible range as permitted by Central Government to radiate the signal strength.
In this regard, the BSNL official informed that the dialogue initiative during 2012 by BSNL , Govt of Meghalaya, and taken up by India and Bangladesh to share bandwidth from the International Border via Agartala has progress well and hoped that this would open up tremendous opportunities for the North East in terms of IT connectivity.
They also requested the Co-Chairman MSPB to assist in resolving a number of issues at the grassroots level relating to installation of towers, requirement and connection of power lines to the towers and maintenance issues.
The GM, BSNL promised that a number of issues raised by State Planning Board would be examined and resolved weather permitting within four months. The meeting concluded with the decision to meet again shortly.(SP News)
