New Delhi, Oct 31: Government has constituted a six-member group to consider various issues arising out of ban on bulk Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS) because of security reasons.
 The group is mandated to define bulk SMS or MMS to be sent by a mobile phone user "at one go" or "in a day" and look into the possibility of exempting certain users from the order.
 The move assumes significance as the government has received representations from associations of the deaf and others opposing the ban citing difficulties faced by them in communicating.
 The Ministry of Home Affairs put a ban on circulation of bulk SMS and MMS to keep rumour mongering at bay while dealing with various internal security related matters.
 The group, formed by the Ministry of Communication and IT, at the instance of MHA, has representatives from Intelligence Bureau, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and Department of Telecommunications. DoT Director R Shakya is its Convener.
 Deputy Director, IB, Pankaj Kumar Thakur, and directors in the
 Telecom Ministry P C Sharma, Rajeev Bansal and P C Gupta, besides a representative nominated by TRAI are members of the group which has been asked to submit its report within two months.
 The MHA had last month asked the DoT to form a group to define meaning of term 'bulk' and draw up a 'white list' containing mobile numbers required to be exempted from ban.
 It also forwarded suggestions from National Association of the Deaf and from Deaf Employees Welfare Association in this regard. Both the associations have requested the government to exempt people with hearing problems.
 Their request had come in August when the MHA had imposed the ban to stem rumour mongering and to check exodus of North East region people living in various parts of the country amid instances of attack on them.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 31 Oct 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 1 Nov 2012 00:00:00 IST