Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, November 01 2010:
Officials of companies providing mobile phone services in the state started arriving in Imphal to overlook the service condition of their respective companies after the fuel supply to mobile towers were stopped.
Mention may be made that since the stoppage of fuel supply to mobile towers by the fuel suppliers, apprehensions arose of normal mobile services being affected.
Manipur Telecom Diesel Fillers Committee (MTDFC) expected 80 percent of the service of cell phones in the state to be affected.
To take stock of the persisting situation officials of the mobile phone service providers based outside the state have started arriving in the state.
MTDFC general secretary, W Rojit said that other officials are also arriving in Imphal tomorrow.
After holding a consultative meeting between visiting officials and MTDFC members tomorrow, a memorandum will be prepared for submission to the Chief Minister drawing his attention to .the problems being faced by the fuel suppliers.
They are likely to draw Chief Minister's attention to allocate diesel quota for the suppliers for each month after calculating the quantity required by the mobile towers in a month and to check any kind of disturbances by the law enforcing agencies.
To allow them to keep fuel in stock by issuing authorization certificates to the suppliers will also be contained in the memorandum, the general secretary said.
Rojit recalled that there are 13 diesel fuel suppliers of private mobile service operators.
They are supplying fuel to around 700 mobile towers of Aircel, Airtel, Tata Indicom, Vodafone, Reliance and Idea mobile phone operator companies which are in operation across the state.
Even though, they are supplying fuel to run the towers round the clock in the state where for most of the day a black out is the norm, the government had never asked from where they were procuring the fuel and storing it, he lamented.
When an economic blockade was imposed on the national highways for a prolonged period and oil filling stations remained closed, they left no stone unturned to procure and feed the mobile towers by any means whatsover.
Around two lakh litres of diesel is required in a month to feed the around 700 towers.
In the prevailing situation, if government authorities refuse to consider the plight of the fuel suppliers, they have no other options but to stop furhter supply of fuel.
They have been suspending supplying fuel from October 29, he recalled.