[ Karyir Riba ]
ANINI, 19 May: False assurance given by Airtel -one of India’s leading telecommunications companies – to the people of Dibang Valley district has yet again left the district high and dry for a better phone/network connectivity.
Airtel had assured that their services in Dibang Valley district would commence from 10 March this year. More than two months have passed since.
Anini ZPC Theko Tayu informed, “As per assurance given by team Airtel (USOF), their services would be operational in Dibang Valley by 10 March. However, there is no sign yet of the same. At first they had given excuses of bad weather and other issues, but despite good weather, no progress of work on ground can be seen despite full support from the district administration, as well as the people and local representatives of the area.
“We have repeatedly been giving them reminders through the DA but there is no response or update from their end regarding the matter. We had great expectations from the company but as of now we have seen nothing but dejection.” Tayu said.
BSNL has been the lone service provider in the district since years.
However, the network provided by the BSNL is extremely erratic, making communication very unpleasant in the district. Making and receiving calls, even within the district, is a task on its own.
The ZPC informed that the network issue of BSNL is directly related to electricity supply issues. “Since the BSNL network supply is dependent on power supply, it is erratic and fluctuates along with the power supply. Generators are run during power failures but it’s not possible to do so on a continuous basis. Dibang Valley MLA had also provided some fund from his untied and MLALAD fund for erecting an additional BSNL tower in hopes of making the network situation better, but the tower, though installed and set up, is non-functional till date due to reasons unknown,” he said.
It is learnt that the Airtel towers have been set up in Awali, Ichindo and Punli. The next point was supposed to be in Matoli (10 March), which, once functional, would have provided network connectivity to a majority of the Anini headquarters area.
There are also no sign of tower installation in Anini, services of which was supposed to start from April onwards.
Reportedly, the connectivity in Awali, Ichindo and Punli area is erratic, and hence unreliable with lots of call drops and other issues.
“Even if someone travels to these areas to make or receive calls, its not certain that he/she would be successful as there is no particular time for availability of network,” Tayu said.
The ZPC informed, “There are lapses in the survey for tower installations too. Originally, a tower was supposed to be installed in Aloney to provide connectivity to Etalin area. Agreement for the same was made with a local. However, the tower installation has been dropped for Aloney. Etalin area houses a major chunk of the population of DV, and dropping tower installation of Aloney would mean depriving a large number of people from network connectivity. A re-survey should be conducted for the area.”
According to information, work on installation of towers had started on a good pace after the Dibang Valley MLA had submitted a representation to the chief minister during his visit to Anini regarding the matter. However, after a few installations were “shown on paper,” there has been a halt and zero progress of work.
