Andhra villages to get unlimited, uninterrupted Internet services: CM

Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy, on Monday directed officials to prepare for providing uninterrupted unlimited high band Internet connectivity to all the villages in the state.

During a review meeting, the chief minister also called for increasing the Internet capacity to 20 GB if necessary to provide Internet facility with unlimited capacity in villages so that it would be easy to work from home.

Officials have been instructed to prepare an action plan to provide Internet facility to 31 lakh houses in YSR Jagananna colonies that are being constructed. Underground cables are to be laid in 108 cyclone-affected villages. The plan is to provide Internet facility in all the villages by 2023.

The chief minister wanted village digital libraries to be set up in a time-bound manner in all villages. Construction should be done as per schedule and computers should be ready by the time they are completed. There should be a provision to arrange six computers in each library, he said.

Energy, Forest and Environment, Science and Technology Minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy, AP Fibernet Chairman Dr P Goutham Reddy, School Education Principal Secretary Buditi Rajashekar, IT Principal Secretary Jayalakshmi, Energy Secretary Dr Nagulapalli Srikanth, Panchayat Raj Commissioner Girija Shankar, AP Fibernet MD Madhusudan Reddy and other officials were present.

According to Energy Secretary Nagulapalli Srikanth, the cabling work is already underway and will be completed by March 2023. He said 14,671 km of aerial cable has been laid in 3,642 villages of 307 mandals.

Panchayat Raj Commissioner Girija Shankar said digital libraries are being constructed in an area of 690 square feet and the construction cost of each library is estimated at Rs 16 lakh, with 20 seats in each library.

School Education Principal Secretary Buditi Rajashekar said options are being asked for from students for the Amma Vodi scheme and laptops are being procured in two models. The high end version laptops will be provided to engineering students. IANS