MANGALDAI, Dec 3 - Mobile phone and broadband subscribers of BSNL in Darrang district have sought permanent respite from the repeated disruption of services of the public sector telecom company with immediate effect.
Negligence and apathy on the part of the overall controlling authority of the company based in Tezpur and demand for shifting of the controlling authority from Tezpur to Guwahati at a closer distance has also been raised by representatives of different local public organisations and media bodies including AJYCP and Mangaldai Media Circle, among others. Srawan Kumar Jha, a mediaperson based at Kharupetia while talking to this correspondent expressed his strong resentment and said, �I have been a BSNL subscriber for the last eight years and BSNL has never considered even a single day�s delay for payment of my monthly bill. But I am deprived of my due service for two to three days almost on a regular basis. We, the mediapersons of the district are the worst sufferers.�
On the other hand, Bhargab Kumar Das, a social activist and a regular BSNL subscriber alleged an attitude of negligence towards the district on the part of a section of Tezpur-based senior officials and demanded early delegation of controlling power to the GM, Kamrup from Tezpur as the distance of Kamrup from Darrang district is nearly 30 km and less than that of Tezpur.
It may be mentioned here that besides thousands of customers of mobile and broadband service of BSNL, commercial institutions, tax and fees collections etc., in Darrang district were recently hit for nearly 60 hours at a stretch following the network disruption of both mobile and broadband services in the district including Mangaldai, Kharupetia and Sipajhar. The disruption of services in the district controlled by the General Manager, Secondary Switching Area (SSA), BSNL Tezpur has allegedly been experienced by its subscribers in a frequent manner and very often the time required for its restoration is found to be long. In recent times, the situation seems to have crossed all previous limits.
Meanwhile, when contacted over phone, SK Deb, GM, (SSA), BSNL, Tezpur told this correspondent that the situation occurred due to some �route failure of Optical Fibre Cable (OFC)� laid in between the stretch of Rowta and Orang under Udalguri district. He pointed out that the ongoing work of widening of NH 15 as one of the main reasons of this failure. He said, �The ongoing works of road widening in those areas is one of the reasons.� However, he tried to avoid a straight answer to the queries regarding the long delay in restoration of services. He simply said, �Everytime our efforts may not result in quick results.� On the occurrence of this problem on a regular basis and the necessity of arranging an alternative route to Darrang district via Baihata-Chariali from Guwahati, he said that they are looking into it so that subscribers do not suffer in the future. The GM, BSNL, Tezpur also assured of considering option of rebate on the bill amount of the customers affected by the disruption if the matter is brought to his attention.
It is pertinent to note that the officials of BSNL often allege damage of underground cables by the PWD authority during constructions but there is hardly any instance where BSNL authority has been found asking for legal action against such PWD contractors or the officials allegedly involved in such illegal practices.
