| Students, Businessmen fume over choked internet | | Authorities stay inert to Jammu's plight | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 21: Netizens, businessmen, students and common citizens of Jammu are questioning administration's move to choke the internet speed in the region in spite of the fact that life returned to normal two days ago.
As a precautionary measure, Internet was snapped in entire Jammu region last Friday. However, , it was restored the previous day but with a limited speed not even enough to open a web page leave alone surfing the world wide web.
People of Jammu are questioning the administration over its approach in dealing with the situation, accusing it of unnecessarily stirring the equilibrium of Jammu. "When curfew has been lifted and normal life has been restored, it is beyond one's understanding that why internet continues to remain choked. It has been affecting my studies badly but there is no one to listen to our plight," said a student. "What is the fun of keeping the internet speed limited to 2G? What purpose it will serve when no untoward incident has been reported anywhere? Why is the government punishing the Jummuites?," asked another student studying in Class 12th.
There are people from small business houses as well who are complaining of the choked internet speed, stating that the government seems to have been taking decisions without assessing the situation on ground. "I have a travel agency and my business in entirety is dependent upon internet. I can understand, it was snapped. But now when there is no reason of keeping it choked, why is the administration still doing it without any remorse," he added.
According to reports, of the 172 Internet shutdowns have been recorded between January 2012 and April 2018 in the country , 92 were observed to be preventive measures i.e. restrictions imposed in anticipation of law and order breakdowns, whereas 80 shutdowns were reactive in nature i.e. imposed in order to contain on-going law and order breakdowns.
It is especially interesting to note that the number of preventive shutdowns often match and at times surpass the number of reactive shutdowns overall. In 2017, the number of preventive shutdowns were al- most three times the number of reactive shutdowns, indicating that Internet shut- downs are increasingly being resorted to even before law and order breakdowns have actually taken place.
Meanwhile, there is no news about the restoration of full speed Internet in Jammu region. The administration says it is keeping a closer watch at the situation. One wonders what is the administration finding out as it watches the situation closely. |
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