Srinagar, July 23: Residents of north Kashmir’s Varmul district are facing tremendous problems in absence of the cellular services, which were snapped last month following the killing of two youth in police action.      
 Services of different companies, excluding state owned BSNL, were suspended on June 28, by the state government in several areas of Varmul on the directives of state police. Thousands of subscribers of Airtel, Aircel, Rcom, Tatas, Vodafone and Idea in Varmul, Sopur, Sangrama, Rafiabad and other adjoining areas have been running from pillar to post to know when their mobiles would start ringing again. 
 “They have punished the entire population to hide their own failures,” locals said. “They should have blocked services of those persons whom they considered threat to law and order and not of the entire population.”
 A wave of anger has swept among people in north Kashmir over the ban, which has badly hampered fruit business and much- hyped cross LoC trade. “We have no idea about the market trends of apples in other parts of country due to this arbitrary and illogical move. The entire economy of people in this region is dependent on fruit industry. It seems that government is hell-bent upon destroying our economy by snapping the mobile services,” said Khursheed Ahmed a fruit grower.
 “If the services are not restored forthwith we will take to roads,” he added.
 When contacted deputy commissioner Varmul Bashir Ahmed Bhat said that he has taken up the issue with concerned authorities.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST