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Monday, February 21, 2011

High-level committee instituted to review telecom services in Sikkim

GANGTOK, 21 Feb [IPR]: The Central government, on the request of the State Government here, has constituted a committee to review telecom services in the State. As per the Department of Information Technology, the committee has the Chief Secretary as Chairman, Principal Director, I.T as Member Secretary and other members include Secretary, IPR, DGP, Sikkim Police, Joint Secretary (T) from the Department of Telecommunication, CGM and GM/BSNL –West Bengal and Gangtok circle, GOC and BRO/Swastik.
The committee held its first meeting on 17 February at the Tashiling conference hall here and the Chief Secretary expressed concern over the telecom issues prevailing in the State. Principal Director, I.T, Rajesh Verma, gave a briefing on the current status and issues relating to the internet connectivity being provided by BSNL and highlighted the lack of manpower provided by BSNL, lack of backup provisions, lack of spare parts and other problems which were undermining the reliability and efficiency of the telecom network.

KN Bhutia, Secretary to the Governor, conveyed his concern about issues of connectivity and its improvement and has asked the BSNL to take immediate steps giving priority to the state.
BRO and the Army echoed similar problems.
In response to the issues addressed by the various members the CGM, BSNL west Bengal circle and the GM, BSNL, mentioned that the reasons for poor connectivity were Optical Fibre Cable [OFC] breakage, OFC thefts and rough terrain due to Sikkim being a hilly region.
The CGM, BSNL, WB circle also made a presentation on the current status of connectivity across the state. The Chief Secretary mentioned that these days, with most of the systems being run online, reliable and good connectivity was necessary and BSNL should work out ways to provide better services so as to maintain a good functioning of the system.
CGM, BSNL has taken up the matter seriously and will do the necessary to improve the connectivity.
The GM, RBI, E. Karthak, also complained that the banking sector was facing such issues in connectivity blackouts and as a result of which they are not able to conduct banking transaction sometimes for days together. During telecom blackouts, ATM’s was also severely affected and as a result of which the public, especially the tourists, were being inconvenienced.
The meeting also took advice and suggestions from the members to improve the connectivity in the State. The DGP advised BSNL to hire private security to  solve the problems of thefts of OFC cables. The representatives from Energy and Power, NIC, Army and Border Roads Organization also actively participated in the deliberations.
The committee is scheduled to meet once every quarter. This high level committee will help resolve various connectivity issues and also monitor the measures taken by BSNL to combat the telecommunication woes being faced by the State.

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