People consume 15GB/month in wifi-enabled Nagpur villages

Making Wifi facility available to five villages in Nagpur has become a cause for concern for the state government, with each user found to be consuming average 15GB per month. So much so, the state is now mulling introducing some sort of financial model to make Wifi self-sustainable for these villages. With plans afoot to provide Wifi facility to 500 more villages in Nagpur on August 15, the state is even more concerned about the situation.

Commenting on high data usage of the five villages, an official from the IT department said, “A review of these villages indicated that every user is consuming 15GB data which is huge. We have not gone into details of the data that they are downloading. But we are assuming that people are mostly downloading entertainment stuff, which is a novelty for villagers. These villages are remote and have no facilities for amusement.” The official added that even chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was shocked to know about the huge data consumption.

“At present, Wifi services are free as government is funding them. The 500 additional villages too will get them free-of-cost. But we have to work on some financial model so that wifi service will become self-sustainable for villages. We have asked other departments including education to start e-learning classes. The health department can use Wifi services for e-medicine. The villagers will be charged for these additional services,” he said.

It was under the "digital Panchayat" scheme that five villages in Nagpur district, including Khandala, Khalsa, Tarodi, Dabha and Vihirgaon, became Wifi-enabled in May this year. Come Independence Day, and the CM will introduce Wifi in 500 more villages of Nagpur. He will be launching the service from Mumbai. As part of the inauguration, Tarodi Budruk School in Nagpur district will have a digital classroom, and Mr Fadnavis will communicate with the students from Mumbai.

Meanwhile, the state government has given its nod to set up a board for IT to speed up the works. While the principal secretary of the IT department will be the chairman, there will also be two experts from the field on the board.

Scheme’s Benefits This Wifi scheme is being implemented as a part of the Centre’s scheme. Ministry for Panchayati Raj has initiated an e-governance programme called "e-panchayat" under the National e-governance plan. India has over 2.4 lakh panchayats across 31 states and union territories. The programme will enable panchayats to improve services to citizens using IT as a tool for transparency and informing public about government services. It will also help in social audit and improvement of internal management processes, besides decision making, electronic tagging and tracking of funds transferred to panchayats.