Hyderabad, March 21 -- The Union Minister of State for Communications, Pemmasani Chandrasekhar, stated in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, March 20, that the Central government cannot provide an interest-free loan to Telangana for implementing the second phase of the BharatNet project.

Responding to a question by Congress MP Anil Kumar Yadav, the minister stated that Telangana is executing BharatNet Phase 2 under its own policy and had requested financial assistance in the form of an interest-free loan from the Department of Telecommunications.

"However, such a facility is not available under the Digital India Fund, making it impossible to extend support," the minister said.

The BharatNet project aims to provide high-speed broadband connec...