Accusing a home owner of unauthorised installation of a mobile phone tower in their residential colony, about 50 of the residents of the colony in lower Nehrugram area of Dehradun approached the district administration on Tuesday and threatened to undertake protest at the collectorate if the authorities allow erection of the mobile phone tower inside the residential colony.
A delegation of about 50 members of the residents welfare association of Sri Siddh Vihar colony in lower Nehrugram area went to meet the district magistrate of Dehradun on Tuesday with their grievance. According to the residents, they were told by the district magistrate to get the case checked by the additional district magistrate (finance and revenue) to ascertain whether permission had been granted by the district administration for the installation of the mobile phone tower in question. The delegation members said that the additional district magistrate informed them that permission had not been granted for the said mobile phone tower.
In the memorandum addressed to the district magistrates, the residents have stated that during the past eight to ten years, about 150 families have settled in the colony with more buildings expected to be constructed on the residential plots in the colony. They state that one resident of the colony is getting mobile phone towers covering a space of about 100 to 150 square feet on the second and third floors of his building without authorisation. The residents further state that Dehradun being a seismically sensitive region, setting up a big telecommunication tower in a residential colony poses a threat to the life and property of colony residents. They are also concerned about the radiation from the mobile phone tower exerting a detrimental effect on their health and have warned to initiate protest in case the tower is authorised by the administration. The Sri Siddh Vihar Jan Kalyan Samiti vice president VP Dimri and other residents of the colony were among those in the delegation. It should be mentioned here that installation of mobile phone towers in residential areas is a common anomaly in the land use pattern in the provisional state capital where majority of the residential localities are dotted by commercial enterprises operating from rented premises.