Srinagar, July 19: Days after union home ministry talked tough with cellular service providers operating in Jammu and Kashmir, cellular operators have started terminating the distributorship agreements in the Valley, evoking sharp criticism from the people earning their livelihood by selling SIM cards.
A group of distributors of the private cellular companies Aircel, Airtel, RCom, Tatas, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, told Greater Kashmir on Monday that without serving any advance notice or assigning any reason, their contracts were terminated arbitrarily by the operators.
“The cellular operators have terminated around 164 distributorship agreements in the Valley. We have been left in lurch by this arbitrary move and are forced to take to the streets to protest against this highhandedness. It is part of bigger gameplan to permanently ban cell services in the state,”they said. The notices were served to several distributors by service providers on Sunday evening accusing them of breaching the agreement.
“Since you have violated and acted in breach of the terms and conditions of agreement, please take notice that in terms of clause 19 & clause 13 of the afore-mentioned agreement, the Company hereby terminates the said agreements dated 1st September 2007 & 30th April 2008 with immediate effect, without prejudice to any of its rights under the said agreements and subject to the consequences of termination as envisaged therein; and amongst others, all rights granted to you for issuance of SIMs and providing other services under the aforementioned agreement stand withdrawn. You are hereby advised to raise claims, if any, and settle your accounts within a period of seven days,” reads the notice served by Bharti Aitrel to several distributors in the Valley Monday.
The affected distributors said the move would render nearly 7000 to 10,000 people jobless, who are working at different distribution centres and franchisees.
“About 20 people work at each distribution centre and two persons at each franchisee. How can they blame us for faulty SIM verification as we have no role in the process. They themselves conduct verification through their own agencies and we are being made scapegoat. The telcos should have served us two to three months notice if they had to terminate the agreements,” said Nazir Ahmed, a distributor, adding that they have invested lakhs of rupees in the telecom business for past six years.
“If they provide hassle-free cellular services in Naxal affected areas, why they are harassing us on one pretext or the other. And this has been happening for the past six years,” said Fayaz Ahmed, another operator.
Well-placed sources told Greater Kashmir, that during a recent meeting, home secretary G K Pillai directed the telecom operators to sack the distributors, who had issued SIM cards found to be used by other than the legitimate owners.
Sources also said that the customers possessing more than one SIM card in same name would be deactivated.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, Atul Kansal, chief operating officer Tata teleservices said the agreements of only those distributors are being terminated who do not abide by the rules and regulations of the department of telecom (DoT).

Lastupdate on : Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST