Students of Ranchi University (RU) have to wait for another few months for getting Wi-Fi facility at their respective colleges. Due to fund constrain, the Wi-Fi facility which was presumed to be completed in November 2016 will be delayed for a while. Targeting the urban vicinity colleges in first phase, internet connection work is likely to be complete covering maximum colleges of RU in March 2017 now.
“We have planned to complete the Wi-Fi work covering all the five Universities and 30 colleges on 15 November 2016 but at present we do not have sufficient money to complete the procedure. However, the department will complete the task of first phase by March 2017,” said Higher and Technical Education, Secretary, Ajoy Kumar Singh.
Varsity personnel on the other hand blamed the State Government’s easy-going attitude for the delay. Notably, a private telecom operator has also approached the RU officials to lash the campuses with the high speed internet facility some time ago.
“Few years back, we have received a similar proposal from Reliance Jio. The company personnel were ready to give Wi-Fi facility at University colleges for free of cost. They were seeking permission for putting mobile towers on the campus premises but the proposal was turned down as after a while the State Government took the responsibility of lashing the campuses with Wi-Fi in all the Universities. University has also paid Rs2.5 lakh to BSNl to complete the process, this bid too received a setback and company is yet to refund the money back,” said, RU VC, Ramesh Kumar Pandey.
However, Secretary Higher Education has completely denied the statement, “We have received the proposal from Reliance but they were not providing the facility for free of cost. There were several terms and conditions with the proposal. Students were asked to pay for using Internet data according to the proposal drafted out by the company,” Singh added.
Furthermore, the State government has hired consultants from Wipro Consultancy Solutions ltd. for conducting the survey in both urban and rural pockets and will chalk out feasible points for making the campuses Wi-Fi Zones.
“Wipro consultancy has completed the survey procedure of first phase covering different colleges in urban belts. The university is ready and is trying enough hard to provide Wi-Fi facility at different
colleges. As far BSNl is considered, a letter from University has been sent to the company to refund the amount. Things are getting delayed due to the Government involvement. Reliance proposal including a communiqué from Higher and Technical Education department was received at the same time, hence the work got little tedious,” said, RU CCDC, PK Singh.