(a) whether a large number of wait listed applicants in rural areas of West Bengal are not provided with telephone connections so far;
(b) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;
(c) whether similar situation exists in other States also;
(d) if so, the details thereof; and
(e) if not , the steps taken by the Government to provide telephone connections to the wait listed applicants in West Bengal?
MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS ( SHRI TAPAN SIKDAR)
a)&(b) : Yes Sir. As on 30.6.2000, there is a waiting list of 93,566 in the rural areas of West Bengal Circle. The district-wise details are given in Annex-I.
The main reasons for this waiting list are the non-commissioning of the planned new exchanges for want of electrical power and local problems in laying underground cables resulting in insufficient external network.
(c) &(d): Yes, Sir. The Circle-wise Rural waiting list as on 30.6.2000 is given in Annex-II.
(e) As per the objectives of 9th plan , telephones will be provided on demand by the year 2002 in the rural as well as in the urban areas. Action has already been initiated for provision of necessary infrastructure , equipment etc. to achieve this objective.
For the year 2000-2001, following targets have been set for the rural areas of West Bengal Circle:-
New Telephone Exchanges = 210 DELs = 1,04,000ANNEX-I
S.NO. NAME OF DISTRICT WAITING LIST IN RURAL AREAS.ANNEX-II
1 24 PARGANAS(N) 7,259 2 24 PARGANAS(S) 3,777 3 BURDWAN 14,104 4 BANKURA 3,223 5 BERHAMPUR 4,632 6 COOCHBEHAR 2,890 7 DAKSHIN DINAJPUR 1,445 8 DARJEELING 7,833 9 HOOGHLY 9,362 10 HOWRAH 2,041 11 JALPAIGURI 3,797 12 MALDA 2,122 13 MIDNAPUR 10,235 14 MURSHIDABAD 7,467 15 NADIA 11,120 16 PURULIA 1,051 17 UTTAR DINAJPUR 1,208
TOTAL 93,566
S.NO. CIRCLE RURAL WAITING LIST
1 ANDHRA PRADESH 2,60,595 2 ANDAMAN & NICOBAR 1,468 3 ASSAM 7,011 4 BIHAR 50,217 5 GUJARAT 59,416 6 HARYANA 45,526 7 HIMACHAL PRADESH 28,753 8 JAMMU & KASHMIR 5,502 9 KARNATAKA 1,93,274 10 KERALA 5,17,754 11 MADHYA PRADESH 8,468 12 MAHARASHTRA 1,58,118 13 NORTH EAST 9,847 14 ORISSA 20,647 15 PUNJAB 1,11,965 16 RAJASTHAN 75,175 17 TAMILNADU 1,25,482 18 UP(RAST) 66,155 19 UP(WEST) 24,564 20 WEST BENGAL 1,16.133 TOTAL 18,86,070