Kupwara, Nov 14:  The poor working of the Village Public Telephones (VPT), the only mode of communication presently available to the people in the remote areas of this frontier district, has left them cut off from rest of the world.
 Residents of these areas accuse the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited of failing to improve the VPT services, following the ban on the prepaid mobile telephony in J&K.
 The residents said prior to the ban mobile phones would serve as an effective mode of communication in the district. “But ever since the prepaid phones went silent, we have been made dependent on the VPT and WLL phones, which seldom work,” they said.
 Many people told Greater Kashmir that in absence of a reliable communication link with the rest of the world, they could not know about the wellbeing of their relations.
 Many VPT owners said that the BSNL had not been doing anything to improve the services.
 A delegation of owners led by Muhammad Ashraf Shah appealed the BSNL authorities to improve the service immediately. “If the authorities fail to improve the services, we would surrender our VPTs,” they said.
 The said the VPT were not getting connected with other users. “Presently we are able to contact the people having only BSNL mobile connections. It seems the BSNL has barred the outgoing from the VPT with other users,” Ashraf said. 
 This scribe repeatedly dialled many local running mobile numbers of Airtel, Tata Indicom, Vodaphone and Aircell from a VPT no. 219218 at Kupwara, without being able to get any number.
 The VPT owners said they had applied for the all local call facilities from the VPT including the mobiles of other networks and BSNL landline which too was not accessible through these phones.
 VPT, the fixed phone wireless facility, was introduced in the Valley to facilitate communication in remote areas facing poor connectivity.
 General Manager, BSNL, told Greater Kashmir over phone that he was not aware that the outgoing facilities from VPTs was barred with other networks. “I would take up the matter with the concerned,” he assured.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:00 IST