Taking the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Congress to task, Union Communications, Electronics & Information Technology minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw said the Opposition should stop lying to the people of Odisha about telecom density in the State.
Addressing a public gathering in Bhubaneswar, Vaishnaw said that Odisha is in a far better situation as far as telecommunications is concerned. So people who are continuously lying about the Centre should stop doing that.
“Odisha had only 7500 mobile towers in 2014. The number has now increased to 26,512 in 2023. Those who are trying to mislead the people by lying in press conferences should refrain from doing so. Because the people of Odisha are quite aware of all the work that is being done around them,” said Vaishnaw.
“Only 6 lakh people had access to broadband internet in 2014. Now in 2023, a total of 2.2 crore people have broadband at their disposal in the State. Similarly, Odisha had only 40,756 km of fibre optic cable network. Now it has 1.37 lakh km of fibre optic cables transmitting internet signals to the consumers,” Vaishnaw added.
“This is not all. In fact, PM Modi has granted Odisha Rs 5,600 crores to install 5333 additional mobile towers in the State. I have urged the State government to provide land quickly so that the towers will come up sooner,” he said.
He further said that politics should be dedicated to the Nation and should not be self-centric.
No comments have been received from the BJD and the Congress.