Raipur: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said today that the time given to meet the target in Bharat Net Project has been extended six times and a show cause notice was issued to the agency for not completing the same within the stipulated time. In the monsoon session of the state assembly, the Chhattisgarh government told that the private agency has been issued a show cause notice for the delay.
In a written reply to senior BJP MLA Ajay Chandrakar, CM Baghel said that under the second phase, 5987-gram panchayats had to be connected through an optical fiber network for broadband connectivity within a year. The CM further replied that the work was allotted to Tata Projects Limited on July 18, 2018, and as of May 31, 2021, work for 5036 panchayats has been completed. As of May 31, the share of the central government in the project was Rs. 2464,14 crores. The state government also had a share of Rs 112.82 crores in the same.
The deadline for the remaining 591 panchayats was one year, extended six times ahead. A state government official made it clear that optical fiber lines could not be laid in villages located in the reserved forest areas pending the necessary Right of Way (ROW) clearance from the Forest Department. The state Forest Department has also written a letter to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest seeking guidance in this regard.