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| J&K Telecom operators set to face PC’s music | | |
New Delhi, Feb 21: Less than a month after lifting of the ban on pre-paid mobile services in Jammu and Kashmir, some telecom operators are under the lens as the Government has objected to the manner in which the re-verification of subscribers have been done.
The government may also initiate legal action against defaulting operators, official sources said.
The issue of re-verifications reached the Union Home Ministry, which has sought a detailed report from various agencies in the state about the allegations made, the sources said.
The telecom operators of the state -- Airtel, Aircel, Reliance, Vodafone, Idea and Tata Indicom -- have been asked to submit details of the re-verification camps organised in the state, especially in Kashmir valley from January 22 onwards when the ban was lifted, the sources said.
When approached with a common question through email seeking their response, all the telecom operators chose to remain silent and did not answer questions sent by a national news agency.
A senior official of the Union Home Ministry conveyed the concerns of the government over the "lapses" in re-verifying the pre-paid subscribers to the telecom operators. The lapses could have serious security repercussions, they said, adding the new guidelines ensured strict action and penalties will be imposed if any operator was found guilty.
The action comes close on the heels of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram expressing surprise over the speed in which re-verification of nearly 1.6 lakh customers was done in only 24 days which included two gazetted holidays and a eight-day long strike in the Kashmir valley.
The Home Ministry wanted to know about the mechanism adopted by the telecom operators in re-verifying the pre-paid mobile customers after the Centre allowed resumption of services after a nearly three-month-long ban.
Some officials working with telecom operators in the state privately said they had issued the SIM cards earlier after proper verification, but the Government has pointed out glaring lapses, including in regard to the recent attack by terrorists in Lal Chowk in Srinagar where militants had used pre-paid SIM cards issued in someone else's name.
Taking a cue from the Centre's action, the Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM) Cell of Department of Telecommunication in Jammu and Kashmir has also got into action and was verifying complaints about several telecom operators still allowing their retail outlets to handle verification of new pre-paid and post-paid connections.
The Centre had imposed the ban on pre-paid mobile phone services on November one last and Chidambaram had then said if the service providers come up with a fool-proof plan of 100 per cent verification and the ministry was satisfied with it, then the issue may be revisited.
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