Munmun Kaur
Published On: December 28, 2021 at 11:10 IST
Himachal Pradesh High Court while dealing with a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), issued various directions to the State Government. The PIL was about the plight of the residents of the State and that of the rural and backward areas of the State with respect to poor internet connectivity.
The directions were issued by the Bench of Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Justice Chander Bhusan Barowalia.
The Court directed the inclusion of a clause for construction of common duct to be made mandatory in bids/ tender documents while construction or widening of the roads. This will enable the faster rollout of telecom infra and at the same time avoid the inconvenience to the general public towards digging the road.
The Court further directed that there should be no Right of Way (RoW) charges or even there are, they should be far less than what they are at present. The Court was of the view that Himachal Pradesh being a less populated state has very less product viability and high RoW charges further contribute to it.
the Chief Engineer to the Govt of H. P. assured the Court that the proper exercise regarding the same would be undertaken and the compliance report will be filed with the Court on the next hearing.
The Court made an observation that an ultimate internet experience can only be achieved through Fiber to Home and therefore directed the state to constitute a state-level coordination committee to come up with suggestions in its report and the decision as taken by it be placed before the Court on the next hearing.
The Court while acknowledging that there is widespread fiber cutting by various agencies of PWD, Jal Shakti, etc., which results in inconvenience to the general public and leads to loss of revenue, directed that in order to maintain the quality of service as per norms prescribed by TRAI, the cut needs to be minimized.
The Court also stressed upon the implementation of dig once’ and ‘Call before you Dig policy as part of State’s policy to avoid unnecessary breakdown of services.
The matter is listed for further hearing on January 05, 2022.