Minister of Information Technology and Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Nara Lokesh said the government would give a rating on a scale of 7 stars to villages that qualify in the ‘Swachh Panchayat’ competition to be conducted soon.
Addressing a review meeting on the activities of the Rural Water Supply Department on Thursday, Mr. Lokesh said priority should be given to supply of clean drinking water and regular cleaning of drains. He wanted nearly 33,000 overhead tanks to be cleaned up with the help of advanced technology.
Importance should be given to LED lighting and underground drainage works, particularly in the villages in the capital region, he added. Principal Secretary K.S. Jawahar Reddy and Commissioner B. Ramanjaneyulu were present.
In a separate meeting on the fibre grid project with officials of A.P. State Fibrenet Limited (APSFL), Mr. Lokesh ordered that the laying of cables be speeded up to provide triple play services (Broadband, cable TV and telephone) to the targeted households in the stipulated time.
The officials told Mr. Lokesh that 23,800 km of cable was laid and 23,304 domestic connections given. Arrangements were being made to link up another 38,969 houses, and customer billing of the connections has begun.
Mr. Lokesh said set top boxes should be procured on a large scale to meet the deadlines and ordered that committees be formed with the Energy and other departments concerned for the sake of coordination in the execution of cabling works.