Imphal: Chief Minister N Biren Singh today launched Chief Minister-gi CSC Singgi Tengbang and public Wi-Fi hotspots in hill districts in a function held at City Convention Centre. Chief Minister-gi CSC Singgi Tengbang is an incentive scheme for the Common Service Centres (CSCs) of the State.
Speaking at the occasion, the Chief Minister urged the CSCs to be careful and honest in issuing and updating important documents like Aadhaar cards. Even slight negligence or insincerity due to want for money may prove disastrous for the whole Nation and the State because wrong persons from foreign countries may get hold of such important documents, he observed. As such, CSC operators must always have the notion of ‘Nation’s security first’ in their mind, he added.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mission to bring equal development and opportunities in all parts of the country, many noble schemes have been launched, and enrolment of all these schemes can be done online now, the Chief Minister said. As such, there is a need for expansion of digital reach to interior parts of the State as well, the Chief Minister said and added that under this initiative, Wi-Fi hotspots are launched in different villages of hill districts. Now, enrolment for State and Central Government schemes can be done at Village Chiefs’ house, he added. N Biren Singh also urged the public to call the phone number of ‘CM Da Haisi’ (95347 95347) to clear any doubt.
Apart from various development works taken up in the past four and half years, initiatives to strengthen the CSCs and expand digital connectivity to interior hill villages are the testimonies of the State Government’s concern for progress and development of hill districts, the Chief Minister said. Infrastructure development works in interior districts like Tamenglong are the tell-tale examples of the Government’s commitment towards actualising the progress of the hills, he said.
Stating that there is a need for household-wise and village-wise upliftment in order to actualize egalitarian development, the Chief Minister observed that bringing Village Authorities into confidence for it is of prime importance. The Chief Minister also said that he would invite the Village Authorities for suggestions and ideas from time to time for taking up developmental works in hill districts.
Maintaining that the present State Government always has a strong commitment to developing the hill districts, the Chief Minister said that he was the first person to raise the issue of topographical need-based budget for the States having both hills and plains. As a result, the Government of India introduced the Hill Area Development Programme under which Tamenglong district had already received Rs. 90 crore for development works.
CM Biren Singh also said that he would never succumb to any unreasonable pressure from any organisation, adding that one should never forget that the whole country has only one prime authority to govern i.e. the Government of India. He also urged all concerned to do politics only to actualise development and render human service. Politics to make division among people should never be done, he observed.
The incentive scheme for CSCs has been formulated keeping in view of the fact that most of the CSCs are unable to sustain their business due to low service fees paid to them resulting in poor performance. Accordingly, the State Government has released incentives to this CSCs for a period of one year. The State Government proposed to continue the incentive scheme for CSCs in order to support them and ensure viability.
CSCs have been providing services like Aadhaar enrollment and updation, digital literacy, Digital Life Certificate (Jeevan Pramaan), Aadhaar enabled payment system in support of the digital cashless transaction, utility payments such as electricity, telephone, water bills, etc. Furthermore, the State Government has taken up an initiative to convert 50 per cent of this CSCs to business correspondence to provide banking facilities to the unbanked areas of the State. For providing Government’s services to the citizens at their doorsteps, a total of 1000 plus CSCs have been established in Manipur.
On the other hand, to fill the prevailing connectivity gap between Gram Panchayats and Block Headquarters at the village level for empowering rural masses by giving them access to information, public services including those of education, health and financial inclusion, the Government of Manipur in association with Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) has taken up an initiative to provide public Wi-Fi especially in hill districts.
Public Wifi hotspots aim to facilitate connectivity to the remotest part of Hill Districts using VSAT connection provided by the Government of India. So far, BBNL has installed a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) along with receivers, batteries and solar panels in the Village Chief House and has successfully commissioned around 1,122 sites.
However, most of the villages in hill districts are not able to meet the required internet connectivity benefits due to minimal coverage of the network beyond the terminating point. To address the issue of minimum coverage of the network beyond the terminating point, the State Government is providing Wifi routers free of cost as infrastructure support for 1122 VSAT sites to extend connectivity to the last mile.
The State Government has already started the installation and commissioning in five villages viz. M. Kananphai village (Churachandpur district), Dimgjanglong (Churachandpur), N. Phungchoijang (Senapati district), K. Leihaoram (Ukhrul district) and Somthar village (Ukhrul district) on a pilot basis. The remaining sites are envisaged to be online by end of December 2021.
During the programme, the Chief Minister handed over incentive cheques to CSCs for the ‘Chief Minister CSC Singgi Tengbang, prizes for best District CSC for 16 districts and wifi router to the village chief and BBNL. Short videos on CSCs activities in the State and Public Wifi hotspots at Hill Districts were also presented during the programme.
Agriculture Minister Oinam Lukhoi, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha Leishemba Sanajaoba, MLA, Singhat AC Ginsuanhau, Chief Secretary Dr Rajesh Kumar and Deputy Director-General, Department of Telecom Brijesh Prajapati and other Government Officials attended the programme among others.
