(a) whether telephone facilities has been provided to all the Gram Panchayats in the country;
(b) if so, the number of Gram Panchayats particularly in Maharashtra where this facility has not been provided so far, district-wise;
(c) the steps taken by the Government to provide better telephone facility to Gram Panchayats; and
(d) the budget allocation made for this purpose during the year 2001-2002 and the target fixed in this regard?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY(SHRI TAPAN SIKDAR)
(a) & (b): There are 33951 Gram Panchayats in the country and 2020 in Maharashtra where this facility has not been provided so far (annex I). The district-wise information in this respect in case of Maharashtra in given in the annexure II.
(c) The steps include deployment of technologies such as Wireless in Local Loop, Point-to-Multipoint system developed by Centre for Development of Telematics(C-DoT) and satellite based telephones for remote and inaccessible areas in the country apart from conventional wireline facility and connecting all exchanges by reliable media by various operators.
(d) Rs. 2675 crores has been earmarked by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. as budgetary allocation for Village Public Telephones (VPTs) during the year 2001-2002 and target fixed in this regard for 2001-02 is provision of 144000 VPTs for the whole country. However BSNL has completed their portion of VPTs in Maharashtra Circle & remaining villages (including Gram Panchayats) are to be covered by Private Basic Service Operator by the end of 2002.
ANNEXURE - I
Circle-Wise Status Of Panchayat Villages With VPTs As On 01.11.2001
Sl. No. Circle No. of Panchayat Panchayat Villages Remaining Panchayat Villages provided with VPTs Villages
1 Andaman & Nicobar 67 67 0 2 Andhra Pradesh 19533 18260 1273 3 Assam 2486 2094 392 4 Bihar 8489 5625 2864 5 Chhattisgarh 9139 5713 3426 6 Gujarat 13510 12542 968 7 Haryana 5946 5946 0 8 Himachal Pradesh 2922 2744 178 9 Jammu & Kashmir 1461 897 564 10 Jharkhand 3303 1965 1338 11 Karnataka 5692 5690 2 12 Kerala 1000 1000 0 13 Madhya Pradesh 22029 18594 3435 14 Maharashtra 24937 22917 2020 15 North East -I 1973 1391 582 16 North East - II 2374 1715 659 17 Orissa 5254 5010 244 18 Pubjab 12477 12477 0 19 Rajasthan 9184 8641 543 20 Tamil Nadu 13126 13126 0 21 U.P (East) 51262 39522 11740 22 U.P. (West) 12831 11848 983 23 Uttranchal 6843 4150 2693 24 West Bengal 3473 3473 0 25 Calcutta 468 421 47 26 Delhi 191 191 0
TOTAL 239970 206019 33951
ANNEXURE - II
DISTRICT-WISE DETAILS OF VILLAGES WITH GRAM PANCHAYATS HAVING TELEPHONE FACILITIES IN MAHARASHTRA AND GOA
Sl. No NAME OF SSA NAME OF DIST. TOTAL GP TOTAL GPsPROVIDED WITH BALANCE GPs VILLAGES TELECOM FACILITY TO BE PROVIEED WITH TELECOM FACILITY
1 AHMEDNGAR AHMEDNAGAR 1160 1141 19 2 AKOLA AKOLA 486 470 16 3 WASHIM 450 450 0 4 AMRAVTI AMRAVATI 804 731 73 5 AURANGABAD AURANGABAD 693 693 0 6 BEED BEED 924 893 31 7 DHANDARA BHANDARA 546 542 4 8 GONDIA 500 450 50 9 BULDHANA BULDHANA 828 783 45 10 CHANDRAPUR CHANDRAPUR 804 756 48 11 DHULE DHULE 480 447 33 12 NANDURBAR 482 448 34 13 GADCHIROLI GADCHIROLI 458 363 95 14 JALGAON JALGAON 1062 1062 0 15 JALNA JALNA 557 557 0 16 KALYAN KALYAN(THANE) 882 787 95 17 KOLHAPUR KOLHAPUR 913 913 0 18 LATUR LATUR 637 562 75 19 NAGPUR NAGPUR 710 687 23 20 NANDED NANDED 1163 1100 63 21 NASIK NASIK 1224 1224 0 22 OSMANABAD OSMANABAD 544 468 76 23 PARBHANI PARBHANI 573 492 81 24 HINGOLI 500 490 10 25 PUNE PUNE 1177 1032 145 26 RAIGARH RAIGAD 660 585 75 27 RATNAGIRI RATNAGIRI 768 453 315 28 SANGLI SANGLI 631 610 21 29 SATARA SATARA 1213 894 319 30 SINDHUDURG SINDHUDURG 388 220 168 31 SOLAPUR SOLAPUR 931 931 0 32 WARDHA WARDHA 481 456 25 33 YEOTMAL YEOTMAL 1123 1042 81 TOTAL 24752 22732 2020 34 GOA NORTH GOA 100 100 0 35 SOUTH GOA 85 85 0 GRAND TOTAL 24937 22917 2020