Subscribers irked with faulty telephones in Betul

Aditya Malaviya

Indore

It seems subscribers still have to put up with often and lengthy telephone faults in the state, with no effect to services being privatized or in government hands. Now it is the turn of telephone subscribers in Betul to bear the brunt of telephones being on the blink. 

The only difference in the fault here and elsewhere is that while they do manage to get lines restored by the telecom department after a hue and cry, in Betul the fault in the telecom system has been carrying on for the past five months, and there is still no end in sight. Telephone services in the city and in rural pockets have been disrupted because of a technical fault that the department has not been able to pinpoint and rectify still.

Not surprisingly, the handfuls of Internet aficionados' have also taken serious umbrage at the disruption to their connectivity because of the fault in the department's landlines.

Sources say that the source of potential trouble is the newly installed C-DoT microwave exchange that was commissioned here with great fanfare. It is claimed that ever since the exchange has been made functional, the citizens of the city and near-about areas have been facing one glitch after another. 

If this is the case, then the much-vaunted digital exchanges of the Telecom Department seem to be out of synch with their deliverables. This too especially when the older exchanges had a better track record in terms of hassle-free service. Now, services are completely out of synch in the two developmental blocks of Athner and Bhainsdehi. 

So irked are subscribers that Shailendra Arya, local TAC member and BJP spokesperson, personally led a
slogan-shouting delegation of local BJP members and local citizens to the office of Rohit Sharma, Telecom District Manager (TDM). Not content with merely lodging their protest at the office of the TDM, the delegation has also sent a missive to the GM, Vijay Kumar Khandelwal, Telecom and Member of Parliament. The agitated BJP members also demanding the resignation of Sharma because of his incompetence in rectifying the problem plaguing the area's telephone system.