LUDHIANA: About a thousand gram panchayats in Ludhiana district will soon be getting wifi connectivity under the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s (BSNL) National Optical Fibre Network programme. Disclosing this here today, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister and Ludhiana MP Manish Tewari said, this was a countrywide programme in which over 2 lakh gram panchayats will be provided wifi connectivity andLudhianahas also been included in the first phase of the project.

The Minister expressed his gratitude to the government ofIndiafor conceding to his request to includeLudhianadistrict in the first phase only. He said, the project will provide immediate and fast internet connectivity to the people living in the villages. He pointed out, since the private operators were not prepared to provide the internet services in the villages as it did not generate them much revenue, the government ofIndiasteeped in to provide this facility to the people there.

He said, given our dependence on the internet, which has become a necessity it was one of his priorities to ensure that the gram panchayats are connected through the worldwide web (internet) with rest of the world. Besides, he added, it will be beneficial for the people whose relatives are living abroad as a large number of people from villages are settled in different countries across the world.

Tewari maintained that while all the villages had telephone connectivity as the tele-density in the district was among the highest in the country, people had been seeking internet connectivity as well which they will be getting very soon.