Srinagar: 5, November: Critics say that behind this decision the percept of security threat is less but of money game is more. Having population of slightly more than 1 crore, there are six mobile phone service providers and most of them have not been able to earn profit.
Just two days after, the Prime Minister of India delivered his speech at disputed Kashmir’s Anantnag region without a bullet proof glass, the Union home Minister P Chidambram announced ban on issuing and recharging of pre paid mobile service in state from November 1.
It is worth to mention that permission for starting mobile phone service was given in Jammu & Kashmir in 2003 as Confidence Building measure. This step of Chidambram has come only when the Prime Minister has announced his intentions for Kashmir solution when he talked of White Dialogue, White Diplomacy.
“The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs has decided that no pre-paid mobile connections should be issued and existing pre-paid SIM cards should not be renewed in Jammu & Kashmir after November 01, 2009. The Ministry has asked the Department of telecommunications to take appropriate action in the matter for implementation of the decision. The step comes in the wake of the reports that proper verification is not being done while providing such pre-paid mobile connections by the service providers/vendors. In some cases, a single person had been issued with multiple numbers of connections. The fake documents/identity numbers are also reportedly being used by the vendors particularly, in the case of pre-paid connections. This situation had given rise to serious security concerns. Hence, the decision.”
On 14th of this month Union Home Minister has announced in the Editors meet that Pre Paid mobile service is likely to be banned in the disputed Kashmir and the connection holders will be given sufficient time to switch over to post paid connections. But few days after that Union MoS for telecommunication Sachin Pilot denied the same during his visit to Jammu.
Critics say that behind this decision the percept of security threat is less but of money game is more. Having population of slightly more than 1 crore, there are six mobile phone service providers in the state and most of them have not been able to make profit.
In total these companies have provided about 40 lac pre paid connections and almost all the companies are running in loss in the State and there is no space for growth for the new entrants as saturation has already taken place and there is very little scope for Growth.
The companies can grow only if these pre-paid connections are converted into post paid and the consumer shall have lesser range of services available to choose from. It may be recalled that till recently only BSNL and Airtel the oldest player in the state had the major share of consumers. Aircel which came late in the day and could mange very little clientage and same was the situation fwith Reliance. Now with fresh entrants like Tata Indicom, Vodafone and Idea cellular have reportedly not been able to make much of the dent with the consumers despite launching huge campaigns and offering big soaps to the consumers. With this step all these companies will be getting a minimum fixed sum as monthly rental which is missing in case of pre paid connections.
Critics see this as a move too for creating equal level playing field for all the companies and suggest that in today’s world of information technology such gimmickry should be avoided. Not to mention the latest raid on telecom ministry by CBI wherein the ministry has been accused of showing undue favoritism to some telecom companies in allotting 2G spectrum.
As per the statement issued by Union Home Minister the reason for banning is “The fake documents/identity numbers are also reportedly being used by the vendors particularly, in the case of pre-paid connections. This situation had given rise to serious security concerns. ”
Critics say If this is the only reason for the ban then only service providers are responsible for this. It is the duty of the service provider to verify the documents before issuing any connection. In case of any short coming or negligence on the part of the provider, there is provision of penalty for the companies. For this fault of the companies, harassment to 40 lac connection holders is not justified.
On one hand Omar Abdullah boasts of his achievements of bringing militancy in the state and claims only because of his administration Prime Minister of India can dare to deliver His speech in Kashmir without Bullet Proof Glass. This was watched by whole world via live telecast. But on the other hand he remains mum on this vital decision of the Union Home Ministry. It is worth to mention that even President of India and Prime Minister deliver their speech from Red Fort under Bullet proof glass protection.
(Writer-South Asia)
