Our country is focusing its attention towards building a developed nation and that is the reason why much of the government’s policies are now centered on the rural areas. In order to ensure civic amenities and upgrade the lifestyle of the rural populace, the Centre has started implementing various programmes of development under the ambit of Bharat Nirman in rural India. Rural telephone connectivity is one of them.
The North-East is a remote region of India consisting of light states. There are schemes where a rural community phone has been installed in the shop in the village, connecting the hamlet with the rest of the world. As per the scheme, implemented by the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) the owner of the shop gets 50 paisa commission from each one and half minutes which fetches him a good earning at the end of the month. This community telephone is of great help for the 1.5 thousand populace of the village as there is no other telephone connection in the village. A single land line connection in the area costs a lot of money.
The community phone has also been started in remote areas of Laljhuri, Shib-nagar, Ujan Machmara, Karchanchara, South Monpui, Tuichama and Bhargmune under Kancharpur subdivision of the state. In North Tripura district, a total of 44 hamlets have been provided with rural telephone facility till now. The Grameen Sanchar Sewak has brought a new dimension in the gamut of rural telephone service under Bharat Nirman programme. People of Gournagar and Chandipur in Kailashahar subdivision regularly come across Chandrahar Sin-ha and Prabin Debnath, both Gramin Sanchar Sevak carrying WLL phone with STD facility on their bicycles.
Plan is that all the remote areas of the district will be brought under rural telephone connectivity. According to BSNL the WLL (Wireless in local loop) is a broader means for rural connectivity. Many base trunks are being setup. A Base Trans Receiver station will start operation soon in the remote Shermun hills too. With this endeavor taken by the Government, it is evident that the entire State especially the rural areas will get linked with the entire world through telephone connectivity very soon. The latest decision of the Telecom Commission to waive license fee on rural landline telephones is an effort to promote telephone use in rural areas. The decision is also intended to give a boost to e-governance through provision of more broadband services in villages, thus reducing the digital divide.
The Commission has also decided to reduce the Levy towards the Universal Service Obligation (USO) from the present 5 per cent to 3 per cent of the Adjusted Ground Revenue (AGR) in the case of those telecom service providers who have already covered more than 95 per cent of rural areas. The Universal Service Obligation Fund has been set up to create infrastructure support in rural and remote areas for providing telecommunications service to people at affordable and reasonable prices. The decisions to boost rural telephony and the e-governance are in line with the Government’s policy of promotion of rural telephony and accessibility of telephone in remote areas.