In the absence of a proper internet network at a village in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, members of the Indian Youth Congress party had to climb a 150-ft tall mobile tower to get better signals. The voting for electing the members of youth wing of the national party Congress was online.
Keen on casting their vote, about 5-6 young men of Indian Youth Congress climbed atop the mobile tower. Local media reports claimed that there was no network equipment on the tower but due to being at a certain height, they got the mobile signals to access internet.
With no internet connectivity in the village, members of Indian Youth Congress climb atop mobile tower in Rajasthan to cast vote online. #DigitalIndia pic.twitter.com/urJ52ovyvq
— Aakriti Sharma (@_aakritisharma) February 24, 2020
While people in villages struggle to get mobile signals to access the internet, the government, under its flagship programme Digital India, is ken to talk up the development of broadband highways.
According to a survey quoted by a telecom minister in 2018, over 43,000 villages in India do not have mobile phone services, with Odisha accounting for the highest number of such villages at 9,940.
The telecom minister, in a reply in parliament, said: “The number of inhabited villages without mobile services stood at 43,088 as on July 27, 2018 (based on 2018 Survey) out of 5,97,618 inhabited villages in the country as per census 2011.”
