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is the only reliable network. The prob-
lem in our country is that the wire line
network could not be made properly,
the mobile came and we switched. In
the last four years our government has
made Telecom Infrastructure more
than twice.
Optical fiber was seven lakh kil-
ometers in this country; we increased
to fourteen lakh kilometers. If we talk
about BTS, it was eight lakhs, now they
are increased to twenty lakhs. So to stop
the call drop and for better connectivity
and better quality telecom infrastruc-
ture is required.
For this the infrastructure is Tower
and BTS, which we have increased in
bulk. But there are some scholars who
say that it produces radiation and lead
to diseases. We have conducted many
seminars across the country to create ‘BJP won’t be in a at home or on the way or somewhere
awareness. We released the wave com- else. Whichever place they tell us we try
munication portal. bad state in Uttar to solve it in a week.
We gave freedom to know the Pradesh than it was
radiation level of any tower of the coun- Due to high reserve price in 2016,
try. While sitting at home they can get in the year 2014. the 700 MHz spectrum remained
information about it. If you want to Whatever unsold and the government kept it
know the radiation level of a particular for the second time auction. Only
tower, through the wave communica- the political alliance 60 per cent of the proposal was
tion portal you can get the information available in the auction. Year 2017
while sitting at your home, you just may be, country was an unsuccessful financial year
have to pay four thousand rupees and needs an effective in this area and due to this the
within one month will get the result of auction was postponed. What do
tower near home. We have repeatedly and decisive you have to say about this?
told in the Parliament about how much leadership’ It is completely factually incorrect that
radiation is happening and outside the the auction was not done due to bad
Parliament too, our rules are very strict. financial conditions. We had kept so
We have seven times strict rules There we can set up towers and we much of spectrum in the market that
than other countries of the world. I had a meeting with the representatives as many people could buy it but there
want to assure the country that EMF of the state government too. State gov- was not much need of it. I think that our
radiation will not affect anyone’s ernments have also assured that what- telecom service providers were not
health. But who will explain the Intel- ever new rules we have made, they ready to buy the spectrum of 700
lectuals? A base tower was established will get permission from the munici- MHz. Again, when we will do auction, I
in Lodhi Garden. pal corporations as soon as possible. I believe people will buy a lot.
A morning Walker said, “Sir, Influen- believe that continuous monitoring has
tial people come here. They are associ- improved call-drop significantly and On one hand, you are doing new
ated with Welfare Association. They did the TRAI report has its standard. If you experiments while removing the
not allow us the tower and this caused see the report of last three quarters, regulatory barriers of the telecom
a lot of trouble, especially in the metro there has been a lot of improvement in sector as Telecom Minister, but
cities. The main thing is that we have the call drop in every quarter. in the Ministry of Information
put in many efforts in this direction. We I have also set up a system for the Technology, there are efforts to
have allowed government buildings, survey in my ministry, in which 2.5 mil- bring the right data protection and
and we had a word in Cantonment and lion subscribers have been called by us, online content in constitutional
airport area too. The policy has also and we have asked them frequent ques- ambit. What is the difference
been made. tions like where does call drop happen, between both of them?

TEHELKA / 15 FEBRUARY 2019 46 WWW.TEHELKA.COM

40-47 Q&A Anil Singh.indd 8 2/1/2019 8:18:32 PM