Knotty affair: Not just poles, cables installed on walls, house roofs in Adarsh Nagar

Manmeet Singh Gill

Amritsar, July 19

The private Internet companies, telecom service providers and cable TV networks are not only using electricity and streetlight poles but also the walls and roofs of houses at Adarsh Nagar in the Islamabad area.

Madhu Bala, a local resident and a member of the district Red Cross Society, narrated a harrowing tale. “One night, we heard some noise from the roof of our house. When we raised an alarm, an unknown person on the roof fled. Next morning, we found nails in the roof and cables tied to them,” Madhu said, adding that black cables tied to nails exist till date.

She said later they came to know that cables belong to an Internet company. “Nobody asked me for permission or even cared to inform before installing cables on my roof,” she said.

A large pillar box which has electricity meters can also be seen alongside the entrance of her house, which she said was installed without her permission.

Hundreds of cables laid by private companies along the power transmission lines can be seen crisscrossing streets in the entire locality.

Residents complained that private companies installed cables that inconvenienced them. “They do not simply care about aesthetics. It seems the concept is alien to them as they are using everything to fix their cables,” said another resident Satwant Singh.

The residents demanded that the Municipal Corporation should act against all companies which have misused public and private infrastructure for their commercial gains. They also demanded that all cables should be laid underground so that people do not face any problem.