Choti line exchange of Nehru Place stops functioning

The choti line exchange of Nehru Place was recently seized by the authorities
in lieu of default payments by its owner Ajay Namani. This exchange was active
in the said area for about six years now and catered to the outgoing and
intercom need of about 300 dealers, shop owners and other IT sellers in the
market.

Working as the saviors and responsible associations for the smooth working in
Asian dealers hub, two active dealers associations--Computer Media Dealers
Association (CMDA) and Delhi Computer Traders Association (DCTA)--are trying to
revive the exchange in the best of their capacity, of course to get the hold,
individually, which obviously would go to one.

Talking of the case, Namani had got a legal license from MTNL to run a
telephone exchange on its behalf with a minimum security. He got X number of
lines from the service provider and multiplied them by X and distributed them to
the resellers on their behalf for a security deposit of Rs 5,000 and a monthly
rental of Rs 250. This gave them an access to 150 calls per month and intercom
facility among those who all were a part of it.

This was the after effect of the shortage of the lines around that time of
the history (i.e. six years back). The infrastructure of the exchange was set up
by BPL.

Everything was just fine till two years back, when he lost this agreement
with MTNL because of payment defaults and this was the time when it went into
the illegal frame. He was not allowed to run a private exchange without MTNL's
permission and also neither the intercom facility. But it continued.

Basically, the tussle is for the license of the exchange, which has expired
and cannot be renewed or re-issued in the present times because MTNL has
restricted this work till December 2001, when they are scheduled for revisal of
the telecom policies.

DCTA is keenly looking into the matter because last thing they want is the
man vanishing with the security deposits and again they want to revive this dead
and non-working exchange as it has become an integral part of working life in
Nehru Place. DCTA discussed the matter with 15 top people of the Nehru Place and
have decided to wait till the new Telecom Policy is announced in December 2001.

These people are primarily bothered that this man should not run away with
the security deposit of Rs 20 lakh and the infrastructure it has worth Rs 5
lakh. Again when the exchange is revived, they of course do not want to set it
again from the scratch.

CMDA on the other hand has filed a written complaint to Pramod Mahajan, the
Minister for Telecom, and the Police Commissioner to look into the matter and
help them get the license for running the exchange, in the association's name,
so that the monthly rentals can be used for running of the association.

Namani had eight similar exchanges in the capital--Alaknanda, Kalkaji, Kamla
Nagar, Lajpat Nagar, Lajpat Rai Market, Nehru Place and Pitampura. Within a span
of six months, all eight are said to have been sealed by the authorities.

The best part of the whole issue is that none of the dealers has his contact
numbers in spite of his operations for about six years in the area.