The Progressive Sambalpur, an outfit for the people’s cause, and members of the BJD on Wednesday locked up the BSNl office, protesting poor service. Common people, different organisations, political parties and the BSNl users have been complaining the poor service for months. Even BJP, the party in power at Centre, has also expressed its dissatisfaction and lodged protest before the local authorities many a time. The party members even went to the extent of manhandling officials in charge of the works, but to no effect.
last year during the general elections, Collector Balwant Singh also warned the officials for uninterrupted services as the time of election was very crucial. But the situation instead of getting better went worse. “BSNl can be better named as ‘Disconnecting India’,” said Mohit Nayak, a youth of the town.
It may be recalled that when BSNl started providing service at Sambalpur after Reliance, people stood in queue to get SIM cards. But gradually it has lost its attraction only for poor service.
“We suspect that the BSNl officials here, gained over by the private companies, are neglecting their own department and the latter are taking the upper hand and expanding their business network at the cost of BSNl,” alleged State BJD Youth secretary Sanjit Kumar Mohanty.
On the other hand, the BSNl officials clarified that there had been no developmental work in the department, including change of the old and obsolete machineries, for years due to lack of funds.
“Further, when the demand is high for BSNl services, the number of towers is insufficient. Hence, the current problem is an outcome of these two factors,” said BSNl General Manager Satyananda Nayak. Frequent theft of cables is also another problem for network disconnection, he added.
It is further alleged that BSNl has come to agreement with Reliance group allowing its tower for the latter’s use.