Mobile Network Connectivity Sparks Celebrations in Bastar Village
The tribal village received mobile network connectivity for the first time with the installation of a tower
Raipur: The remote, obscure village of Kondapalli in Bijapur district under south Bastar in Chhattisgarh on Sunday erupted in celebrations with the mobile phones of local tribals bussing for the first time.
The tribal village received mobile network connectivity for the first time with the installation of a tower.
The entire village population including women and children gathered at the mobile network tower when it became active and started dancing and singing with the sounds of traditional musical instruments of drums and ‘dhols’.
For them, the arrival of mobile networks is not just for convenience, but the beginning of a new life.
“The availability of mobile network connectivity will now make essential services such as Aadhaar verification, banking, pension disbursal, ration distribution process, online education and tele-medicine far more accessible.
Residents who once had to walk several kilometers through dense forests for basic services can now receive them at their doorstep”, a senior district officer said.
Kondapalli, located deep within the forested region along the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border, has long remained deprived of basic amenities such as roads, electricity and drinking water.
A flagship scheme, ‘Niyad Nella Naar’, of the Vishnu Deo Sai government has played a decisive role in driving the transformation of the villages of Bastar, which remained backward for decades, thanks to Leftwing extremism.
Under the scheme, services are being delivered to 403 villages around 69 newly established security and administrative camps.
Key facilities such as banking, education, healthcare, ration distribution, communication, and drinking water are now reaching remote areas with greater efficiency, a spokesman of the Chhattisgarh government said.
According to official figures, a total of 728 new mobile towers have been installed, including 116 in the Leftwing extremism-affected areas and 115 in aspirational districts.
Around 467 towers are now operational with 4G services, while 449 older towers have been upgraded from 2G to 4G.
The Border Road Organization (BRO) is currently constructing nearly 50 km of roadwork in and around Kondapalli, once a Naxal stronghold, the officer said.
The village received electricity for the first time a couple of months ago only.
“The arrival of network connectivity in Kondapalli is not merely an expansion of communication infrastructure but a revival of aspirations that had been suppressed for years”, chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai said.
