Bharatnet to connect 1/3rd villages in tamil nadu by march 31 | chennai news - times of india

Governor Banwarilal Purohit addresses the assembly on Tuesday CHENNAI: Governor Banwarilal Purohit, addressing the assembly on Tuesday, said Tamil Nadu was “one of the best administered

states” in the country and reeled out various policy initiatives the EPS government had taken, including 7.5% Neet quota for government school students. In his one-hour long customary

address, marking the beginning of the assembly session in the new year, Purohit said the government, under the “able stewardship” of chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, continues to be

guided by the spirit of the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa and has made tremendous strides towards realizing the vision of making Tamil Nadu the numero uno state in the country.“The

consistent focus of the state government on providing good governance to the people is now widely recognised… Responsiveness in governance is the watchword of this government,” Purohit said,

amid loud thumping of treasury benches. Incidentally, Purohit announced the rollout of the controversial ‘BharatNet project’ – the rural broadband connectivity programme -- to one third of

the revenue villages in the state by March 31, and the remaining villages by November 30. On a complaint from Arappor Iyakkam, an NGO, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal

Trade (DPIIT) of the Union government had scrapped the Rs 1,950 crore tender in June last year since the bid conditions of the state government were “restrictive and discriminatory” in

nature. In November, the DPIIT again communicated to the state, following allegations of manipulations in tender conditions, not to finalise the latest bid until the inquiry was completed.

By combining BharatNet with TNSWAN, TamilNet and TACTV’s broadcast infrastructure, a convergent digital service delivery platform – Unified Digital Infrastructure -- will be built to deliver

high speed, scalable bandwidth to all households in the state, the governor said. The pro-active approach of the state in attracting an “unprecedented” Rs 60,674 crore worth investments

through 73 MoUs, generating employment for one lakh people, all during the pandemic, came in for much praise. For its part, the state government also demanded that the Centre reject

Karnataka’s Mekedatu dam project at the inter-state border, and not to allow Kerala to build a new dam across Periyar river. It sought Central assistance of Rs 5,264 crore for the damage

meted out by two cyclones recently and urged the Centre to take up the fishermen issue with Sri Lanka. Purohit said the state received Rs 13,300 crore towards compensation from the Centre,

including Rs 4,890 crore towards borrowings in lieu of compensation as per the mechanism put in place by the GST council.