Mobile customers queue up in front of a network service provider in Guwahati. Picture by UB Photos
Guwahati, Jan 21 : Confusion continues to reign and the experience continues to be harrowing for mobile users across the region.
The only respite seems to have come in Silchar and Nagaon where crowds trying to get their prepaid mobile phones re-verified have begun to thin.
“That’s because the people at BSNL along with the other service providers had adequately informed users about the nitty-gritty of the entire exercise,” said a prepaid user. Crowds were also seen thinning in Agartala and Guwahati, with many people now resigned to their fate of having their prepaid connections disconnected.
BSNL authorities here had only last evening clarified that the verification process would continue after January 19 and expiry of the deadline would only mean that those who failed to get their connections re-verified would not be able to get their phones recharged. The prepaid phones will not be disconnected, the authorities had said.
Loopholes in the system were, however, far from being plugged, users said. “First of all many people do not know the details about the dates. Then there is also confusion regarding the documents required. Forms are being sold without any justification,” Priyanka Kalita, a college student in Dibrugarh, said.
Police personnel continued to be deployed in front of the Aircel franchisee on RKB Road in Dibrugarh town to prevent the occurrence of any untoward incident.
“Hundreds of people had gathered in front of the franchisees. Traffic flow has been affected because of the crowd. We had to deploy police teams, including lady constables, after requests from telecom service providers and their franchisees," Hiranya Bora, officer-in-charge of Dibrugarh (sadar) police station said.
In Nagaon, the police yesterday resorted to lathicharge at the Aircel counter where more than a 1,000 people had gathered for the re-verification.
The situation in Manipur was chaotic, with people having spent up to two days queuing up before service providers’ offices. “Why only Northeast and Kashmir, why not other states, like Mumbai which have seen terror attacks. This again shows how the Centre treats the people of the Northeast,” said Atom Samarendra, an employee in a central government office in Imphal and a prepaid BSNL user, who had to miss a day’s work at the office to get his phone connection fixed.
“Do the Centre or the directorate of telecommunications think all the people in the Northeast are terrorists or militants? The whole exercise is meaningless and aimed at treating us like second class citizens,” he added.
“Such an irrational attitude of the Centre only adds to the feeling of alienation in the region,” Popcha Yambem, a resident of Imphal West said. Yambem has lost two days standing in queues and he could not submit his documents even today.
Tempers also ran high in Shillong where people continued to queue up to get their prepaid connections re-verified. “As responsible citizens, we do not mind following directives for the sake of national security. But the term national security denotes a countrywide character. Why is it that only we are being put through this? It is humiliating,” R. Lyngdoh, a pre-paid cellular subscriber commented. “We had submitted all the required documents at the time of taking the connection. Why are we being asked to go through it all over again?” he said.
“Why should innocent citizens be put through such an ordeal when the onus lies with the cellular operators?” another prepaid customer, D. Majaw, asked. “Law enforcers should go after the cellular operators instead of harassing the people,” he added.
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