Srinagar, Aug 6: Owing to strict curfew across the Kashmir Valley, various recharge kiosks are currently running out of balance.
 Many retailers here told Greater Kashmir that they are unable able to recharge their accounts in wake of prevailing unrest and strict curfew. “Retailers buy balance or recharge time from the distributors of the cellular companies, who buy it from the companies outside the state. However, since the entire banking system is shut at present in the Valley, the distributors here cannot send payment to the companies outside, as the whole process takes places through bank transactions,” said Parvez Ahmad, a retailer at Bemina.
 However, some retailers, who have been in the business for long time and enjoy good reputation with distributors, are said to be given the recharge time even without money. They have been asked to send the payment later. “But those who are new to the field are facing lot of problems as distributors simply do not trust them,” said one of the distributors. 
 Besides, many retailers said after cellular operators terminated many distributorship agreements in the Valley, the amount of recharge time that would be allotted to the Valley earlier had also reduced considerably. “Earlier the telecom operators would be dealing with more number of distributors. But then the companies terminated over 160 distributorship agreements in the Valley after the Home Secretary G K Pillai had directed them to sack the distributors, who had issued SIM cards found to be used by other than the legitimate owners,” said a retailer and added, “With the result, recharge time for the Valley has also reduced.”
 Consequently, scores of prepaid and dynamic postpaid mobile subscribers are not able to get their cell phones recharged. “I have tried many recharge kiosks since yesterday, but am not able to get my cell phone recharged anywhere, since kiosk runners are said to be presently running out of balance,” said a BSNL subscriber from Nageen locality. “My balance is almost nil and my validity is set to expire soon. I desperately need to get my cell recharged,” he said.
 Some prepaid subscribers said their incoming call facility was barred after the expiry of recharge validity period.
 Meanwhile, many subscribers of Dish TV too are facing similar problem, as they could not file payments in the market due to curfew and stringent official restrictions.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 6 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 6 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 7 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST