Telecom operators face CM Chandrababu Naidu’s ire for indifference
Naidu slammed private mobile phone operators at a review meeting on Monday
Visakhapatnam: AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu slammed private mobile phone operators at a review meeting held with their representatives here on Monday.
He expressed discontent over the indifferent behaviour of telecom firms who did not help the government and people during the cyclone crisis. He has asked them to ensure that telecom companies set up mobile charging points so that customers can charge their mobile phones. During the meeting, local executives from Idea Cellular, came forward to set up mobile charging centres.
The CM has asked telecom companies to ensure that officials are provided with 3G services so that relief and restoration work can be carried out quickly and efficiently.
He sternly admonished them in no uncertain terms for not restoring communication even five days after the cyclone devastation.
“Telecom companies should also have social responsibility and cannot focus solely on profit-making. If telecom service providers had responded and acted quickly in restoring services, they would have been done within two days,” he said.
Mr Naidu has asked telecom companies to come up with plans that charge the customers in the cyclone-hit districts less.
He also asked officials to send the police to the houses of operators who did not attend the meeting and pick them up.
Tata company executives informed Mr Naidu that 50 per cent of their services have been restored in Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts while Uninor said it has restored 48 per cent of its services.
Meanwhile, Sunil Bharati Mittal, chairman of Bharati Enterprises, clarified the reasons behind the communication problems affecting Vizag.
Mr Mittal, who attended the meeting, provided his views on reasons for communication problems and gave an update on the progress of restoration of towers in and around the city.
Mr Mittal said that they had taken all measures to provide services possibly by Thursday evening. They were hoping for full restoration of services by by Saturday, though they were facing difficulty obtaining fuel for running generators.
“We met Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and extended our solidarity to support people during the current crisis. Restoring the communication system has faced some difficulty due to non-availability of diesel and lack of power supply. Still, we are expecting the entire Airtel network to be ready by Saturday evening,” he said.
He said all towers were being run on diesel.