Odishatv Bureau

Bhubaneswar: ‘Achhe din’ seems to be here as four Union ministers went on an inauguration spree in Odisha today. It started with Communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad laying the foundation stone of the new building of Baramunda post office in Bhubaneswar in the morning.

Later, Prasad launched BSNL’s Wi-Fi services in Puri at 1 pm. Similarly, Road Transport and Highways minister Nitin Gadkari dedicated the National Highway-203 bypass near Pipili to the nation in the afternoon in the presence of Pradhan and Tribal Affairs minister Jual Oram.

Inaugurating the Wi-Fi service, Prasad said, "Initially, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited service would be available between the Jagannath temple and Mausi Maa temple during the ongoing Nabakalebar festival and the ensuing 'Rath Yatra' and 'Bahuda Yatra'"

Under the ambitious Digital India project launched recently by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 2.5 lakh panchayats would be connected through optical fibre, the minister said.

He said the 'Digital India' initiative would help the country and its people reap benefits through technology.

The minister said India at present had around 98 crore mobile phone and 30 crore Internet users. The government aimed to increase Internet users to 50 crore in the next two years, Prasad added.

Emphasising on the manufacture of electronics in the country, he said his ministry had already received proposal worth Rs.24-25,000 crore from entrepreneurs and cleared proposals of about Rs.12,000 crore.

Prasad said that a special postal stamp on Nabakalebar festival would be released soon.

Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the Sun temple complex in Konark had already been connected with Wi-Fi.

Puri member of parliament Pinaki Mishra, Odisha Information and Technology Minister Pranab Prakash Das, Puri legislator Maheswar Mohanty and state BJP president K.V. Singhdeo were also present on the occasion.

The public dedication ceremony at Pipili witnessed a chaotic situation when activists of ruling BJD and BJP clashed with each other. Eyewitnesses said, followers of both the parties tried to forcibly enter into the meeting place and in the process entered into verbal duels. When security personnel prohibited them from entering into the place, they started sloganeering.

However, the situation was brought into control after intervention of some senior police officials.

scrollToTop