The centre has decided to cover around 4,000 Left Wing Extremism affected villages in State’s ten districts with mobile phone networks.

Replying to a query in Rajya Sabha, the minister of state for communications, Devusinh Chauhan said “3,933 villages are to be covered with tele-connectivity in Odisha under Aspirational District Scheme of Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)”.

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While 79.49% of people in Odisha have access to mobile phones as against the national average of 88.07% of people using mobile phones. The coastal State has less access to mobile phones than the national average.

“The central Government and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) provide telecommunication connectivity in the country including rural areas in a phased manner. The government has taken various initiatives under Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) to improve telecommunication connectivity in the uncovered villages and Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts in the country including the state of Odisha. Also, as per TRAI’s report dated 21st October 2021, the teledensity of the state of Odisha is 79.49 % against 88.07 % teledensity of the country. To improve the teledensity in the state of Odisha the number of Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) has been increased from 16416 to 69472 from March 2014 to November 2021 by the TSPs”, the Minister informed the upper house.

A total of 483 new mobile towers will be installed in telecommunication-uncovered areas with a maximum of 128 in the LWE-hit Malkangiri district.

The telecommunication facilities will act as a catalyst for accelerating the pace of development. The security has been enhanced in the LWE-hit areas with BSF deployment so also there has been a drastic improvement in the road connectivity.

The telecom connectivity in this area will bring the people further to the mainstream. The absence of net connectivity was hampering the Aadhar linking and online direct cash transfer to beneficiaries under social security schemes. That will soon be a thing of the past, said an official of Malkangiri district.

The Maoists presence had turned out to be a deterrent for providing mobile service to these Maoists-affected pockets. However, things brightened up in these pockets with the bridge over river Gurupriya restoring connectivity of the cutoff villages with the mainland. With the security forces keeping tabs on anti-Maoist operations, the improved connectivity has led to the bringing down of red rebels-engineered violence in the region.