Kohima, Feb. 12: A disconnection drive by the BSNL services in the last fortnight in Nagaland has distressed its consumers. ?How can I file a bill which is years old?? complained Atanu Phukan of the PTI. Avinash Koli, organising secretary of the BJP in Nagaland, complained that his telephone connection has not been restored despite payment of the bill. ?Now the elections are close and I have nowhere to go,? he said.
The new system of despatching bills through the postal department has created problems. General manager P.K. Sarkar said people should take the matter to the postal department instead of the BSNL.
?We have told several NGOs to take up the job but no one is ready,? he said. The condition of Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) phones is worse. There was capacity of 500 connections in Kohima but the load is much higher. Sarkar blamed politicians, bureaucrats and the media for it.
Officials complained that engineers were called in since November but no one had come. Mobile phones are in the doldrums. Sources said the service is expected to pick up soon with the installation of the Customer Care Node machines, which will have a nodal centre in Shillong for long-range connectivity.
Mobile phone services were inaugurated by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on October 27 in Kohima. BSNL engineers termed it a ?political decision?, as the services were not up to the mark. ?Our cell phones are working fine,? said Sarkar, denying anything was wrong.
Nagaland?s telecommunication system has been facing problems for the past several months. Sarkar, however, expressed hope on the WLL connections for the state capital. He said the next financial year would see capacity augmentation to 1,000 lines. From Tuesday the number of Internet channels in Dimapur have also been increased from 30 to 60. The WLL junctions in Kohima have been augmented five-fold since December, improving the services, the general manager said.