Of poor telecom service and indifferent authorities
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service
Kotranka (Rajouri), July 23
Despite the Central government’s claim of bridging communication gap between urban and rural areas, many areas in this militancy-hit border district have slip-shod communication facilities which put residents to a lot of hassles.
Residents of this area allege that landline facilities here are shoddy and communicating from here with the outside world remains a Herculean task for most part of the month. They said telecommunication authorities here were unresponsive and in a month the landline phones worked for only 10 days.
“Most of the times the telephones don’t work here. The landline phones in our homes are just like showpieces, since the phone line remains dead for most part of the month”, said Anil Singh,a resident. “Even the telecommunication staff are hardly seen in the town and remain absent from duty. We on many occasions have asked the authorities to ensure telecommunication service in the area, but with little result”.
Another resident Muhammad Shafi said since the telecommunication facilities were very poor in the area, they had to travel 10-15 km for making a phone call. “Since this is a militancy-affected area, telecommunication is most important for communication. Sometimes,there is an emergency situation and we don’t know what to do. We have to travel a long distance for making phone calls”, he said. “They (telecom authorities are charging monthly bills from us, but are not prepared to provide us quality service”.
District telecommunication officer M.L.Raina admitted that there was some problem with the connectivity in Kotranka. “There are some technical problems with the connectivity there. We are rectifying those problems”, Raina said. “I assure the residents we will be providing them quality services very soon”.