Mumbai: Maharashtra Minister of State for Information Technology Satej Patil on Friday announced the formation of district-level committees to look into issues in laying the telecommunication infrastructure. The committee headed by the district collector will look into the problems faced by the companies in erecting towers and infrastructure facilities. The committees will consist of deputy conservator of forest, superintendent of police, executive engineer of public works department, commissioner/chief officer/chief executive officer, divisional head of the telecom company and executive engineer of MahaVitaran.
Patil said the committee will handle issues relating to the permission for the new/existing towers, pending approval for the right to lay optical fibre cable rows, the issues related to the taxes and redressal of the grievances with regard to the telecommunication infrastructure. The committees are expected to hold at least one meeting every three months.
According to the minister, the recommendations by the district level telecommunication committee will be implemented by respective municipal corporations/grampanchayats/local authorities and government offices.
Patil said the Internet and telephone network play an important role in the development and growth engine of the country. ‘’There are key projects which are under implementation at various levels in the state as well. Mahanet is one of such key projects under implementation by the Information and Technology Department. The project will connect more than 12,500 gram panchayats with broadband. The mobile towers play an important role in the telecommunication network, he added.
“The district-level telecommunication committees will help to weed out the issues and problems faced during erecting the telecommunication towers and infrastructure at local level. In turn, it will help in having a robust state-level network of telecommunication in the near future,” Patil said.
