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| BSNL failure vex subscribers | | |
Early Times Reporter
Jammu
India's premier telecommunications company, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, is in the news, yet again for the wrong reasons, at least in the backdrop of its extremely poor services in the state. For more than last few months now, its internet service has failed hundreds of thousands of desperate subscribers who are almost entirely dependent on its fault-free availability. In Jammu, the impact has been more debilitating for those in the banking, media and various business sectors. Reports suggest trade and commerce in Jammu alone suffered a staggering loss running into hundreds of crores of rupees just in a few days of disruption in the internet service. The losses incurred in Kashmir valley could be no less. Railway bookings and the banking sector, including the ATM facilities suffered too. The media had its own share of the misfortune as several wire services and some electronic networks got isolated in absence of the internet facility. In several areas, the cellular and STD services also were disrupted resulting in lot of inconvenience to the millions of subscribers.
Going by the reports, the services were snapped early this month following the damage caused to the optical fibre cables (OFCs) during road widening on Jammu-Pathankot national highway at several places. Even as the BSNL authorities said they had restored the communication network the same day the snag had occurred, most subscribers were in no mood to buy the claim in view of the fact that the communication had failed at least 10 times during in just three weeks. Senior BSNL authorities said long distance optic fibre cables were damaged at five different locations: between Jammu and Katra, between Pathankot and Gaintela, at two places between Gandhi Nagar and Samba and between Samba and Kathua. Amazingly, the damage has been caused by perhaps the most unlikely quarter, the workers of National Highway Authority of India, in the course of road widening. One would ask whether there was no supervisory control over workers who, left to themselves and perhaps answerable to nobody, mindlessly fiddled with these sensitive cables resulting in their damage and snapping of the communication links from the equally sensitive region to rest of the world. Unless the engineers and workers of the central government Authority took it as kids play some of their heads should roll in view of the colossal damage they caused to the entire region.
Now that the BSNL have decided to lay the optical fibre cables on an alternative route in Jammu region "as well" to ensure uninterrupted telecommunication service to subscribers in Jammu and Kashmir, obviously in the backdrop of the frequent disruption in Pathankot Jammu sector one would expect the work to be started with a sense of urgency. "With the optical fibre cables taking a different route away from the Jammu-Pathankot highway, the problem of cutting of cables will be resolved for ever and people will have uninterrupted communication service," a BSNL official is reported to have said. The alternative cabling should, hopefully, help improve the telecommunication services in the Kashmir valley as well, more so in view of the locational disadvantages it suffers from. Sadly, however, the BSNL has not been as considerate of the peculiar problems faced by its subscribers in the valley as it was expected to be. How fast its internet service is in the state can be gauged by the fact that some subscribers think their mail sent through ordinary post known for its snails pace might be speedier than BSNL's internet. Years ago, it took up the work on the ambitious project of providing speedy broadband services initially to the subscribers of the summer capital. However, the facility has been extended to just some selected uptown civil lines areas while most other areas continue to be without the service although the interested subscribers have applied for the service about two years ago. Every time they remind the authorities about it, they are told it was a matter of another month when broadband services would be extended to outlying city localities as well. It is time the BSNL not only improved its internet, cell phone and other services in the valley, but also speeded up the laying of cables for the long awaited broadband services all over the city. Pertinently, lack of understanding and co-ordination among various government agencies taking up development works in various parts of the state, as perhaps elsewhere, has, more often than not, given rise to avoidable problems. In umpteen instances, underground lines of the telecommunications department were cut off while laying some drains in various areas where mangled cables lying along the road tell the whole story about how the government's right hand does not know what its left hand is doing. As a result of such recklessness, thousands of telephone lines are routinely snapped with the concerned departments trade charges between themselves. Likewise, the workers of the PHE department dig up macadamized roads for laying water pipes which has been a common sight in various parts of the city and elsewhere. Whether the authorities would ever be able to co-ordinate their activities in people-friendly manner time alone will tell.
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