**Bhubaneswar:** The Odisha Government has requested the Central Government to upgrade the old mobile towers in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) areas of the State, informed Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi after a video conferencing with the Union Cabinet Secretary, Pradeep Kumar Sinha at the State Secretariat here today.
Padhi informed that the Cabinet Secretary during the session reviewed development works in the LWE areas. Lack of banking facilities and poor mobile connectivity in these areas were the issues highlighted by the Odisha Government during the meeting.
“Malkangiri and Koraput have been classified as most affected LWE districts. Both the districts lack bank branches and alternative means of banking such as banking correspondents as a result of which we are unable to implement the National Food Security Act (NFSA) through the point of sale (POS) devices and various direct benefit transfer schemes,” said Padhi.
While the mobile connectivity in the LWE areas is of low standard, connectivity in some areas is of 2G level which is unable to cope with present technology, said Padhi adding, “The Centre has sanctioned 483 new mobile towers but the work has not progressed and we have requested to upgrade the old towers.”
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