'46,000 villages in Bihar to be connected by optical fibre in 6-7 months': RS Prasad

Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday asserted that nearly 46,000 villages in Bihar will be connected with optical fibre network in next 6-7 months.

"The Prime Minister had announced that 6 lakh villages will be connected to the optical fibre network in one year. Optical fibre will come in 45,945 villages of Bihar in 6-7 months. This network is already there in all gram panchayats. Now, we will take it to the villages. This work will be done by our youth at Common Service Centres. The survey has already been completed in 27,012 villages and the rest will be completed by November. 6,000 optical fibres have already reached villages," he said.

He also said that the government aims to provide free Wi-Fi spot in every village for one year. "Primary schools, Anganwadi centres and ASHA workers will also receive it for free for a year. People can take the connection at a nominal rate," he added.

Targeting the opposition, Prasad said, "Some only do promises to woo people, some take resolve to work and implement it on the ground. We have come with a roadmap."

"In the last 5.5 years, Rs 11 lakh crores in bank accounts of poor directly and Rs 1.70 lakh crores payment saved from by middlemen," he added.

The Union Minister said there were around 6,000 Common services centres (CSC) in Bihar in 2014 but now there are 34,611 CSCs.

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Bihar elections 2020

The first phase of the Bihar elections was conducted on October 28 with 71 constituencies spread across 16 districts went to polls in the first phase, whereas the polling for the second phase and the third phase will take place on November 3 and November 7 respectively, while the vote counting will be conducted on November 10.

A major battle is expected between the two major alliances -- NDA and Mahagathbandhan. From the NDA fold, BJP will contest on 121 seats of which 11 seats have been allocated to its smaller allies, while the ruling JDU in coalition with BJP will contest on 122 seats of which 7 seats are allotted to Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM, in the 243 seat Bihar assembly election. This election saw the LJP contesting solo as the party made an exit from NDA for having differences over the seat-sharing ratio with JDU. On the other hand, Mahagathbandhan consisting of Congress and RJD will have Tejashwi Yadav as the CM face with RJD-Congress agreeing on 144:70 seat-sharing ratio along with three other Communist parties contesting on 29 seats.

(With inputs and image from ANI)

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