Goa Govt hauls up UTL for poor internet connectivity to panchayats, civic bodies

Chief minister Pramod Sawant has pulled up United Telecoms Limited (UTL), the private agency that has implemented the Goa Broad Band Network (GBBN), for poor internet connectivity at panchayats and urban local bodies. Sawant had demanded that necessary steps should be taken to “fix the issues” and to ensure uninterrupted internet connectivity at the 191 panchayats and 14 municipalities in the state.

Officials said the missive from the chief minister’s office ensured that internet connectivity was much better when Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with Covid-19 warriors, vaccination staff, medical workers and panchayat functionaries.

After a meeting with Swayampurna Mitras on August 7, Sawant had shot off a letter to the department of information and technology (DoIT) on August 10 red-flagging internet connectivity.

“Necessary steps may be taken at the earliest to find out the reasons behind the poor quality of GBBN internet connectivity, fix the issues and ensure that all 191 Panchayats and 14 municipalities are equipped with uninterrupted high speed broadband connection with power backup within 15 days,” Sawant said in his note to DoIT.

Interestingly, DoIT conveyed the directive to UTL on September 1. Director for Information and technology sought a bandwidth utilisation usage report from UTL and also asked the private company to improve the power back up at each village panchayat and municipality.

“It is requested to provide bandwidth utilization usage report along with power backup status at each village panchayat and municipalities for GBBN connectivity,” said Director for IT Ankita Anand in her note to UTL.

In 2006, the state government awarded a contract to UTL to connect all the district headquarters with all 11 Talukas, village panchayats, educational institutions, 225 government offices and urban local bodies with high speed optic fibre cable link.

The state government has already decided to exit GBBN as all the equipment installed and deployed by UTL are at “end of life, end of warranty” and thus in need of complete replacement. Government sources said that UTL has not invested in fresh infrastructure to improve IT connectivity in the state.