May 26, 2001
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) has disconnected the phones of not only some major government offices but also some hospitals, for non-payment of phone bills. Mid-day made a quick round of these places and discovered that the telephones at St George's Hospital, J J Hospital, the police commissioner's office and several police stations had been disconnected. Many state Government officials had to visit their respective local telephone exchanges yesterday to get the problem sorted out. MTNL officials confirmed that the lines had been disconnected due to non-payment of telephone bills. Ramesh Joshi, senior assistant at St George's Hospital said the hospital had payed its telephone bill on May 23. "But even if the bill was not paid, how can they disconnect the telephones of a hospital?" Three of the six telephone lines in St George's Hospital were dead and the rest could only receive calls. A doctor from the hospital said, "Doctors are very upset about this. Every time we have to make call we have to go downstairs. The government has money to spend on foreign trips, but they don't have money to pay the telephone bills of hospitals." Only one of the 10 lines at J J Hospital was working. "The government and MTNL are playing with people's lives,' a source said. A highly placed officer from the police department said that some of their lines were out of order yesterday and added that this had been happening for the past four months.
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