Tangdhar, Jan 5: The poor telephone service by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) in this remote village has become a source of annoyance for the common consumers, while chewing away the business of the PCO/STD kiosks.
 According to the consumers here the local telephone exchange is mal-functioning for the last one year which has virtually rendered this place “incommunicado” from rest of the world.
 According to locals over 300 telephones across the village are not working for the last one year yet the authorities in the BSNL have not taken any measures to fix the problem. “The PCO/STD kiosks have been virtually rendered idle,” they said.
 The faulty communication link with outside world has “made the life in this remote village quite difficult for its people,” they said.
 “We have registered complaints several times with the authorities in the local telephone exchange but to no avail,” they complained.
 “If the company could not provide smooth service, it cannot charge rentals,” said Azizullah Khan of Gabdra, here.
 Some customers said they have started surrendering their telephone connections due to failure of the company to improve its services.
 The residents said that even when the telephones work, the voice quality is so poor that it becomes very difficult to understand what the person on the other side wants to convey. Quoting an example they said the other day a person in Gabra had misheard word “discharge” as “death” due to bad voice quality of the telephone
 “The people only later came to know that the person admitted in a hospital in Srinagar was discharged and not died,” they said.
 Local PCO/STD operators accused the BSNL of snatching their job. ”My telephone remains either silent or out of order for past six months so I have closed down my shop,” said A Q Qureshi of Dildar here.
 The STD operators threatened to go for a hunger strike from next month if their telephones were not restored.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 5 Jan 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 5 Jan 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 6 Jan 2011 00:00:00 IST