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Parliamentary panel seeks state-wise BharatNet performance audit
A parliamentary panel has flagged serious gaps in BharatNet, the government's rural broadband scheme, and demanded a state-wise and model-wise performance audit. The Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology found that…
The Story in Brief
A parliamentary panel has flagged serious gaps in BharatNet, the government's rural broadband scheme, and demanded a state-wise and model-wise performance audit. The Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology found that as of February 28, 2026, only 78,899 of India's 2.64 lakh Gram Panchayats had active Points of Presence for broadband. The Department of Telecommunications has laid 7.19 lakh km of optical fibre and spent Rs 40,635 crore from the Digital Bharat Nidhi on the project, yet utilisation remains sub-optimal. Only 9.48 lakh Fibre-to-the-Home connections are active in rural areas. The panel has sought a revised, time-bound roadmap with clear accountability for universal Gram Panchayat connectivity.
The Indian Opinion
The gap between infrastructure built and grassroot connectivity laid bare yet again. The Committee's call for a model-wise audit is overdue: of the 2.64 lakh Gram Panchayats, only 78,899 have operational Points of Presence after nearly 15 years and Rs 40,635 crore spent. The narrative that throwing money at Digital India solves rural bandwidth problems ignores last-mile execution failures. The real test will be whether the Department's revised roadmap sets specific FTTH connection targets for each state, not just fibre kilometres laid.
Source: telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
