Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, August 03 2009:
The State Government has written to the Union Home Secretary to take up necessary measures to stop misuse of mobile phones by UGs in serving extortion demands.
The Centre has already taken up steps to ban mobile phone handsets which are not manufactured in the country.
According to a reliable source, concerned over the increasing instances of serving extortion demands by militants through mobile phones, Chief Secretary DS Poonia wrote to the Union Home Secretary for taking up necessary measures to stop this menace, a couple of days back.
In his letter, the Chief Secretary also requested the Union Home Ministry to issue instructions to all the mobile phone service providers to ensure that SIM cards are issued only after proper verification.
During his last visit to Imphal, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram had noted that extortion activities in the State is very high and instructed that this be stopped.
On the other hand, with the Central Government initiating steps to ban use of mobile phone handsets which are not manufactured in India, particularly those manufactured in China, mobile phone service providers have started asking the subscribers to get the IEMI numbers of their mobile phone handsets.
Mobile phone handsets with IEMI numbers can be located easily or blocked in case of loss.