Two days after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a slew of relief measures for sectors affected by Covid-19, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Rs 6.29-lakh crore relief package, Union minister Prakash Javadekar announced. The Cabinet also approved the export insurance cover of Rs 1.22 lakh crore scheme and power discom scheme worth Rs 3.03 lakh crore.
Apart from these, the Cabinet cleared the rollout of the BharatNet project for broadband services across 3.61 lakh villages in 16 states under public-private partnership (PPP) mode with viability gap funding of Rs 19,041 crore, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad announced.
According to ANI, Prasad said that the government has taken a historic decision in this direction to reach every village on the information highway. “On 15 August, from the ramparts of the Red Fort, the PM had announced that in 1,000 days, in
6 lakh villages, India would bring optical fiber broadband through Net. Today an important decision has been taken in this direction. We have reached 1.56 lakh gram panchayats. The country’s 2.5 lakh gram panchayats were to be connected with optical fiber.” Prasad said that the government has made 9 packages in 16 states. “No one player will get more than 4 packages,” he added.
The Cabinet also approved a five-year-long reform-based result-linked power distribution scheme worth Rs 3.03 lakh crore on Wednesday. Briefing the media about the decision, Power Minister R.K. Singh said, “We have done a lot for power distribution reforms. It needs to be strengthened. Today, the Cabinet has approved the new scheme worth Rs 3.03 lakh crore, including Rs 97,000 crore central outlay.”
Singh said that the funds would be given to power distribution companies (discoms) to strengthen their system. The Reform-Based Result-Linked Power Distribution Scheme was announced in the Budget earlier this year.