DoT takes on cell jamming officials

NEW DELHI: Local authorities will no longer be able to take the short-cut of jamming cellular networks to meet their ‘limited objectives’ of preventing exam and election malpractices.

In a bid to curb such incidents in the future, the department of telecom on Friday asked the chief secretaries of UP and Haryana to act against local authorities (in their states) who had issued instructions to cell phone companies to suspend operations during recruitment exams and elections.

According to sources, the DoT, in its communication to these states, has said that the orders passed by local authorities are outside their jurisdiction, while also adding that it violated several other licence conditions of telcos laid down by the Centre. Additionally, the DoT has also pointed out that operators cannot suspend services against such orders as their licence conditions required that they ‘maintain quality of service, maintain public utility service and maintain continuity of service’.

The DoT has also brought to the notice of the states that only the home ministry and the ministry of communication had the authority to suspend cellular services under extraordinary circumstances, or, when there was threat to national security from the same, sources added.

However, even while the DoT was taking up the issue with the states, residents of Ghaziabad were subjected to a similar fate on Friday on account of the district administration forcing service providers to suspend operations due to local polls. The only notice that residents were given was an SMS from their operators stating: “As per local directives and local elections, mobile services for only Ghaziabad will not be functional between 8 am and 5 pm. Inconvenience is regretted.”

Government sources said that the role of state authorities in this regard would be considered and action would be taken for indemnification of service providers.

According to operators, this marks the fifth such incident over the last one week where cells went silent after state authorities had issued blanket orders penalising the entire public, so as to control the actions of a limited number of people.

Last week, the SP, Karnal had forced cell companies to suspend opeartions from 9.45 am to 12 noon on October 29 during which a staff selection commission exam was to take place, while in Uttar Pradesh, District Magistrates of Saharanpur, Mainpuri and Meerut wanted cell towers to go off from 8 am to 5 pm on October 28, October 31 and November 3, respectively to facilitate ‘peaceful polling and to prevent spreading of rumours’ during the local elections.