Source: NEPS / Oken Jeet Sandham
Kohima, August 12:
As onslaught against BSNL's faulty and poor services continues, the Corporation too does not miss hitting back saying Nagaland is perhaps the only State in the country insensitive towards the multi-faceted problems facing the department (BSNL).
The State owes to pay the Corporation over Rs 365 crore for landline phone bills and another Rs 142 crore for postpaid mobile phones.
That means there is a whopping outstanding bill of over Rs 500 crore in the State.
The BSNL post paid mobile service was introduced in October 2003 by erstwhile NDA Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee from Raj Bhavan here when he visited the state.
Within four years of its postpaid mobile introduction in Nagaland, the outstanding bills, as per the BSNL sources, reach up to over Rs 142 crore.
Agreeing its failures to meet public demand, an official at the BSNL here also admits that their big bosses often made false promises to the media for the improvement of the service.
This has led to making subordinate officers a scapegoat, he rued.
At the same time, it is really embarrassing to see the continuous cable thefts in the state, which is in fact unprecedented.
Even the phone posts have been removed in some places and such incidents have hardly been heard in neighboring states.
It is really wondering as to how the department would improve its delivery system, the BSNL official regretted.
To add more problem to already packed system, the department had to face Herculean task from time to time in repairing the landline cable damage caused during road construction by the PWD and Border Road Organization people.
It is not a matter of one or two lines but thousands at one time and it takes several days for repairing, the BSNL staff said.
"We don't mind doing all these repairing works of the cable damaged as it is our job but what is disappointing is they don't have slightest feeling to inform us even after knowing that such huge damage have been done," he added.
"But the general publics simply presume the department neglect in their works".
Although there is no denying fact of such outstanding bills in the state, the claim made by the BSNL in the state needs thorough investigation because there have been reports of thousands of SIM Cards being sold out in black by their own officers in connivance with outside elements, subscribers felt.