Residents and the business community in Jammu today flayed the state government's move to snap internet connection in the region, along with the Kashmir Valley, saying that it had affected them badly.
"My business has come to a complete halt for the last two days, I have faced a huge loss in the business as I was not able to book a single airline ticket," Pradeep Singh who runs an airline ticket booking agency in Jammu said.
Singh said that with the snapping of all type of internet services in the state, including Jammu region, the business of hundreds of people like him has suffered badly.
"I am not the only one but there are hundreds of people like me who run their livelihood by booking airline tickets using internet and all of them have been badly hit by the two days ban on the services," Singh said.
The residents in Jammu are furious over the government's decision to snap the internet services in Jammu region, as they say that there was no need to take such a step in Jammu as there was no apprehension of turmoil here.
Not only the common people are suffering but many newspaper offices that rely on inputs from their district correspondents through emails have also been affected.
"Our district correspondents use internet to send their stories to the head office but for the past two days we have not been able to receive any input from them and we have been unable to print our editions," an editor of a local daily said.
The residents in Jammu said that never in the past the government had snapped internet services on any major festival.
Apprehending law and order problem in Kashmir, the Jammuand Kashmir government had taken the decision to snap the internet services in the Valley for 48 hours starting from midnight of September 24-25, however, later, the ban was extended to Jammu as well.
"The decision (to snap internet services) was taken to stop miscreants from hurting the religious sentiments of other communities by posting 'objectionable pictures and videos' on the social networking sites," a police officer said.
But the people in Jammu say that the snapping of internet services in the region has badly affected their business.
"The trouble was there in Kashmir Valley, why the livelihood of people in Jammu was made to suffer by the government," Sunil Kumar an internet café owner said.
Priya, a resident of Rehari area of Jammu, said that the snapping of internet services came as a rude shock for her as she was supposed to submit her visa papers online and the last date to do so was today.
"I had to submit my Visa papers for a scholarship and today was the last date, my career has been affected by the government's decision of snapping the internet services in Jammu," she said.
People here say that even if the internet services were snapped on the mobile phones, the government should not have blocked the service on the landlines as it was easy to track the IP address of any mischievous element.
"The decision to snap internet services in Jammu was the most uncalled for decision of the government and the decision has exposed that the BJP is playing a second fiddle in the government and forcing the people of Jammu to face the hardships," Manoj Kumar a resident of Jammu said.
"Are we living in the 21st century or stone ages, we voted for BJP that talks about digital India and the same party forced us back to the stone ages by snapping the internet services," Kumar said.
He said that the mischevious elements will upload the "objectionable content" on the social networking sites once the services are restored in the region.
"The real problem would be when they will restore the services and the mischevious elements start uploading the objectionable content," he said.