Wi-Fi connectivity restored in villages

The BSNL had decided to cut the connection in March but the district administration had requested it to continue in the event of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit in April. (Representational Image)

THE BSNL, which had cut Wi-Fi connectivity of over 500 villages due to the government’s failure to pay a huge sum of outstanding dues, finally restored the connectivity Friday after the district administration paid Rs 2 crore from the outstanding Rs 7.9 crore early this week. The Wi-Fi connection had been cut in June and the issue had since been hanging fire.

Incidentally, the government has announced Nagpur to be the first fully digitised district in the state in August last year. The government had managed to pay the bills only till November last year but had defaulted on them from December. “We managed to continue the connection with great difficulty till now but had to finally cut the connection as it had become financially untenable. The district administration has paid Rs 2 crore and we have restored the connectivity for a month’s time during which we hope to get the remaining amount,” said BSNL general manager Namrata Tiwari.

The BSNL had decided to cut the connection in March but the district administration had requested it to continue in the event of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit in April. “It is not true that internet connection was severed. They had stopped only the public wi-fi connection. Internet at Gram Panchayat and other government offices was on and the work has continued unabated. We have managed to register over 1.5 lakh farmers in the loan waiver scheme in the past two months. The work for land record registration too has been going on,” said collector Sachin Kurve.