The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved setting up of 4,072 mobile towers in the Maoist-affected areas of 10 States with 4G capacities to improve telecom and bandwidth network in remote areas. The project cost estimated is Rs 7330 crore.
Addressing the media here, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that this would be funded from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) maintained with Department o Telecom.
Of the 4,072 mobile towers, 1,054 will be installed in Jharkhand, 1,028 in Chhattisgarh, 483 in Odisha, 429 in Andhra Pradesh, 412 in Bihar, 207 in West Bengal, 179 in Uttar Pradesh, 136 in Maharashtra, 118 in Telangana and 26 in Madhya Pradesh. This project will be under the monitoring of Home Ministry’s Integrated Development Plan in the left Wing Extremism (lWE) affected areas.
In the first phase, which was completed about two years ago, 2,329 mobile towers were installed at a cost of Rs 3,167 crore in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The additional towers will strengthen the telecom network resulting in increased mobile penetration in the left Wing Extremism-affected and other areas facing security challenges, said Ravi Shankar Prasad.
As of now, out of the 90 districts affected by the Maoists problem, 30 were termed as worst-hit. Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba had said that 44 districts in the country are no longer under the influence of Maoists or have negligible presence and most of the left Wing Extremism (lWE) is now confined only to 30 worst-hit districts.
He had said the geographical spread of the lWE violence has shrunk significantly in the last four years due to a multi-pronged strategy involving security and development-related measures.
Gauba had said significant features of the anti-Naxal policy were zero-tolerance towards violence coupled with a big push to developmental activities so that benefits of new roads, bridges, telephone towers reach the poor and the vulnerable in the affected areas.