Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, April 16: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Thursday appealed to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to safeguard the basic principles of Net Neutrality.
“TRAI, in collaboration with the department of telecommunications, needs to urgently come out with measures to protect network neutrality and ensure it does not favour regressive measures such as licensing online services,” Patnaik said in a letter to Trai chairman Rahul Khullar.
“The growth of the internet is going to affect each and every one of us, especially the young and dynamic population of this country,” the CM said.
“While presently the youth of this country is paying a very high cost for an inefficient net connection, I do not see any justification in limiting the ability of new start-up companies to reach the net user,” Patnaik added.
“I do not feel that there should be any compulsion on users by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to use particular apps for reasons best known to them,” said the Chief Minister. “You cannot force a person to use certain mobile apps because the telecom company believes it should be doing so.”
“Let us remember the Internet is not the marketplace but the market is made inside the internet,” the CM said in his forcefully-worded letter.
Patnaik said the IT sector is at the top of the state government’s agenda and said Orissa has been at the forefront of the IT revolution in the country. “The state government is implementing a number of e-governance projects including ‘Digital India’. The internet forms the crux of our upcoming projects in this sector and therefore, I am concerned about the basic principles of this medium,” Patnaik wrote.
The CM pointed out that this is not an issue of just the ‘elite’ as it is being made out to be. “The government is trying to extend its services to the people through internet because it will be effective and inexpensive. Therefore, I do not agree with the thought that this is a compartment meant for the elite only,” he wrote.
