GUWAHATI, Dec 16 - Suspension of internet services has severely hit the banking sector in Assam and increased the requirement of cash. Meanwhile, security sources admitted that because of dependence of India on the internet service providers of other countries, it is difficult to go for selective blocking of sites in one state.
Bank sources told The Assam Tribune that though most of the banks have their own dedicated internet lines, which are working after the suspension of internet services, most of the bank customers depend on NET banking from their mobile phones and they have not been able to do so. Moreover, the customers have not been able to use their debit or credit cards. Though in recent times, the YONO service launched by the State Bank of India has started gaining popularity among the customers, the service became useless with suspension of the internet services.
Sources said that suspension of the internet services resulted in increasing the demand for cash. Though in the last couple of days, the banks tried to put cash in the ATMs, the availability is not enough to deal with the requirement of the people.
While admitting that all sections of people are facing hardship due to suspension of internet services, security sources said that when the State started witnessing violent protests by a section of people, the need for suspending the internet services were felt. Sources said that some miscreants started using social media sites like WhatsApp and Facebook to spread rumours and there was a possibility of flaring up of the situation.
Replying to a question on why only the social media sites were not blocked without suspending the internet services as a whole, sources said that it is not possible in India to go for selective blocking of some sites in particular states. Sources said that as the servers are mostly located in USA, it is difficult to go for selective blocking. If a site has to be blocked, it has to be done in the entire country and not in a particular state, sources said. Sources said that in the past, police forces of states and other security agencies took the help of WhatsApp and Facebook authorities to take action against criminals but that is possible when only a few persons are involved. But it will be very difficult when substantial number of social media accounts have to be monitored, sources added.
Sources also said that China can block sites on its own because it is not dependant on American servers. China mostly uses its own satellites and even Google, the most popular search engine in the world, is also not allowed in China. Sources said that China has its own search engine and chat sites. �We Chat� is one of the most popular of Chinese search engines.
