Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/govt-may-roll-out-6-lakh-cellphones-for-bpl-families-16546.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Govt may roll out 6 lakh cellphones for BPL families | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Govt may roll out 6 lakh cellphones for BPL families

-The Hindustan Times

With an eye on improving rural mobile telephony, the Planning Commission is mulling the option of providing free mobile phones to 6.52 lakh families living below poverty line.

“We are exploring that possibility. We are working on an idea. The basic idea is that in the rural areas, we need
to incentivize access to mobile telephony,” Plan panel deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Wednesday.

A scheme to provide free mobile phones is expected to be announced during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s speech from the Red Fort on August 15.

Though barely a week is left before the Prime Minister delivers his Independence Day speech, Ahluwalia said the scheme was yet to be approved and a small group of officials was still working on it.

The UPA government will have to spend more than Rs. 7,000 crore on this scheme which is also being widely seen as a sop for rural India ahead of the 2014 general elections.

The 6.52 crore BPL families will also get free talk time of about 200 minutes.