9,924 NE villages covered under VPTs

Shillong, Aug 28 (UNI) Altogether 9,924 villages across the North Eastern states would soon be connected with the rest of the world through Village Public Telephones (VPTs), an official said today.

The Department of Telecom Services has already provided VPTs to about 54,700 uncovered villages in the country under the Bharat Nirman Programme.

In North Eastern states, the Centre has provided 9,924 villages with VPT facilities under each telecom circle till June 2008 to Assam (8,673 VPTs), North East-I (440), Meghalaya NE-I (311), Mizoram NE-I (60), Tripura NE-I (69), North East-II (811), Arunachal Pradesh NE-II (285), Manipur NE-II (507) and Nagaland NE-II (19).

''The target under Bharat Nirman is to provide subsidised public telephone facility to 66,822 uncovered villages. The remaining VPTs are likely to be provided by the end of the current year,'' a BSNL official said.

He said the scheme covers all villages except those having population of less than 100, those lying in deep forests and those affected by insurgency.

UNI RRK DPM RD 1235