FULFILMENT OF RURAL TELEPHONY OBLIGATIONS
BY BASIC TELECOM OPERATORS
RAJYA SABHA
The private basic
service operators have provided 11,632 Village Public Telephones
(VPTs) as on 30th June, 2003. These include 830 VPTs
provided in Punjab as replacement of MARR VPTs. Giving this information
in a written reply to a question by Shri Motilal Vora and Smt.
Prema Kariappa in the Rajya Sabha today, the Minister of State
for Communications and Information Technology, Shri Ashok Pradhan
said that the Government has been persuading the private basic
service operators to fulfil their committed roll out obligations.
Liquidated Damage Charges to the tune of Rs.53.75 crores have
been recovered from six private basic telephone service operators
for the delay in commencement of service as well as for the delay
in provisioning of VPTs and Direct Exchange Lines.
The Minister
added to inform that while granting licenses to six private operators
with effective date in1997-98, a condition was imposed that private
operators would provide VPTs in 97,806 villages in first 3 years
from the effective date. It was also stipulated that the action
will be taken against those operators who failed to fulfil their
roll out obligation.
In a written
reply to another question by Smt. Bimba Raikar, Shri Ashok Pradhan
said that the private basic operators have been asked to fulfill
their rural telephony obligations by the end of 2003 excluding
the categories of villages identified as depopulated villages,
villages with population less than 100, Nexalite or insurgency
villages and villages to be covered by satellite media in the
first phase.
