(FE)
In a bid to make India fully digital, Centre under the Digital India scheme has begun providing free WiFi hotspots in gram panchayats. Uttarakhand’s Dudhli is all set to benefit from the scheme as it is going to become the first gram panchayat in the state to be fully WiFi enabled. The initiative of converting Dudhli digital was taken by RTI activist Ajay Kumar who wrote to PMO’s office in 2016, demanding internet connectivity. Kumar in his complaint had also highlighted the absence of a common service centre in his village.
The PMO had taken note of the letter and built a common service center where now more than 10,000 people can receive their PAN card, voter id, various bills and caste certificates. According to reports, laying down of optical fibre cables and setting up of utility poles is underway in Doiwala. It is to be noted that Doiwala is also the constituency of Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat. Doiwala is also expected to turn into another fully enabled WiFi hotspot gram panchayat at the end of this month.
Locals of the Dudhli village are ecstatic and have said that the conversion of panchayats into WiFi hotspots are a great initiative. They expressed their joy as the village will now turn digital which will be beneficial for them. The WiFi has been named ‘WiFi Chaupal’ and all services of the state government and the Centre could be browsed for free over the connection. According to an official of the Union ministry of electronics and information technology, 54 other village panchayats will be equipped with WiFi connections.
