From C K Nayak
New Delhi: The Centre has taken a serious note on the grave problems of mobile network in the border areas of Meghalaya and its security implications which were brought to notice by Shillong MP, Vincent H Pala.
“Those in Meghalaya along the international border with Bangladesh, especially personnel of the armed forces and residents, face severe hardships for want of mobile communication network,” Pala said in a letter to the Prime Minister recently. But most alarmingly, he said a proposal called CAPF – Central Armed Police Force Project – for setting up 58 mobile towers at a cost of Rs 115 crore in Meghalaya is stuck because some in the home ministry favour private service providers in preference to BSNL. “This has seriously hampered the hope of the jawans to connect to their families as well as the residents of international border areas, Pala said. “Kindly expedite the implementation of the project at the earliest in the overall interest of the jawans and residents in the border,” the MP added.
For a long time the border areas remain in the grey zone of Indian mobile service providers and network of Bangladeshi companies such as Grameen Phone and Robi is strong, well inside the Indian territory. This is despite the fact that strong connectivity of Bangladeshi cellular companies is a major threat to the national security.
Even after Indian mobile companies promising to invest in rural and border areas, there has been no perceivable improvement in the situation. Leaving apart few areas, there is a huge problem of mobile connectivity along the border, almost in whole of Meghalaya.
In the absence of any phone network the jawans are relying on in-house wireless communication. But this does not serve the purpose of private communication needs of the jawans and the civilians.
It is an irony that anti-national elements like smugglers, including cattle smugglers, are using Bangladeshi SIM cards inside the Indian territory. Earlier, even Union ministers have complained about poor mobile network in the border areas.