Bhubaneswar: Odisha has the highest number of villages without mobile connectivity in the country.
There are 25,067 villages in the country without mobile connectivity, according to the Ministry of Communications’ reply in the Lok Sabha based on Telecom Service Providers (TSP) data.
Of these villages, 6,099 are in Odisha, the highest in a state without mobile connectivity.
In the top 10 states, Odisha is followed by Madhya Pradesh (2,612 villages), Maharashtra (2,328), Arunachal Pradesh (2,223), Chhattisgarh (1,847), Andhra Pradesh (1,787), Meghalaya (1,674), Jharkhand (1,444), Rajasthan (941) and Assam (616).
The five states or Union Territories with the least number of villages without mobile connectivity are Lakshadweep (1 village), West Bengal (8), Sikkim (10), Goa (28) and Tripura (31).
In November last year, the Centre approved a plan to provide mobile services in 7,287 villages in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Odisha.
More than half of these over 7,200 largely tribal villages fall in Odisha.
