500 BSNL phones go dead

Tribune News Service

Mussoorie, January 31

Around 500 telephone connections of BSNL went dead due to digging of land by the electricity department to lay underground cables on the Motilal Nehru Marg here today.

The BSNL subscribers were worst hit as their phones were not functioning since yesterday as the optic fibre cables got cut when JCB machines were used for digging. The phones at Waverly Convent and Manav Bharti School were rendered non-functional. SDO, BSNL, Ganesh Kothari said the department had incurred a big loss as cables had been destroyed beyond repair and it would take another day or two to rectify the problem. He said around 100 metre cable had been damaged due to the negligence shown by the electricity department.

Kothari said due to the digging by various departments in the past, the BSNL had incurred a loss of Rs 60 lakhs so far.

The ITBP, banks also complained to the BSNL that their servers were not working. When contacted, Municipal Council president Manmohan Singh Mall said the electricity department had not taken permission from the MC to dig the road and they had been directed to stop the work and reopen it for commuters. They have also been directed to complete the work by February end.

Vijendar Bhandari, a local resident, said the town had been at the receiving end for the past several years due to rampant digging being done by the sewerage and electricity department but the administration had turned the blind eye on the issue.