The Chief Secretary, B V R Subrahmanyam today chaired the first meeting of the State Broadband Committee to review the implementation of National Broadband Mission in Jammu & Kashmir. Administrative Secretaries of departments of Home, Housing & Urban Development and Information Technology besides, officers from LSA, Department of Telecom, GoI, BSNL and representatives from TAIPA participated in the meeting.The meeting was informed that to provide high-speed internet connectivity in Jammu & Kashmir, the J&K Communication and Connectivity Infrastructure Policy will be adopted soon which will pave the way to the implementation of Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules, 2016 in the Union Territory.The Chief Secretary asked BSNL to undertake a survey and consolidate the data regarding the villages/habitations which are yet to be provided with mobile network coverage, besides sharing information on the Broadband Readiness Index (BRI) for J&K.Reviewing the progress achieved under the National Broadband Mission, the Chief Secretary observed that approximately 3200 Gram Panchayats in the UT is still to be provided with high-speed broadband connectivity. In this regard the Department of Telecommunications was asked to review the bottlenecks and expedite the connectivity of the unconnected villages, favourably by December, 2021.
