Senior citizens, doctors, chemists among 10K hit by MTNL glitches

Dead or faulty landline and broadband connections of over 10000 MTNL users across Mumbai and Navi Mumbai have rendered senior citizens living alone shopkeepers doctors clinics post offices and pharmacies helplessWorse despite there being zero services everyone is still paying monthly bills While MTNL officials have admitted that services have been temporarily impacted due to the thousands of employees mdash 18000 out of the 22000 staff in Delhi and Mumbai mdash taking VRS they have also blamed ongoing underground infrastructure work which damaged cables Unless resolved quickly the issue stands to impact the over 14 lakh landline users 10 lakh mobile phone users and around 5 lakh broadband users in MumbaiConsumers ordealmidday reached out to MTNL users who have been struggling amid the chaos as their complaints go unheardThe dead landline phone at Sanpada post officeBandrabased businessman Sanjeev Mehta 52 approached MTNL over his dead landline several times He gets excuses but no solution He recently shifted his cosmetics boutique from Khar West to Bandra West but the landline connection hasntMy house and boutique both have dead MNTL landlines While I embraced private internet service providers we have a different connection with the landlines and cannot part with them Although it has been dead for four months I was paying bills on time However last month I did not pay hoping that theyd repair my phone line Mehta saidA resident of Sahitya Sahawas Arvind Bhanage 68 hasnt had a working landline in seven months They gave the excuse of infrastructure work having damaged their cables My landline worked only for a day sometime in between and died againSanjeev MehtaBhanage needs the landline as his mother who is almost 90 is more comfortable using the landline than a mobile phone Also all our relatives and friends have our landline number It is not easy to change I hope the government intervenes and resolves the issue of staff shortage said BhanageBorivli West resident Suma Madhavan 64 has been dealing with a dead landline for two months though her MTLNLprovided internet service is still workingHer daughter who did not wish to be identified said My elderly mother faces problem in hearing at times and is not comfortable speaking using a mobile handset for too long Also we have been using the landline for decades It is not easy to replacePost office crippledEmployees at a post office in Sanpada Navi Mumbai give out their personal mobile numbers to customers We get a daily footfall of 150 to 200 customers and a majority of them call us to make enquires But despite paying the bills on time and writing to MTNL we have neither received a reply nor a solution said Sub Postmaster Rajendra Acharya who gives out his mobile number to customersAn MTNL lineman from Western suburbs admitted that he has come across many senior citizens living alone struggling without landlinesDecadesold cables are being used Despite the advancement in technology and the passage of time the department seldom invested in upgrading the quality of cables the lineman said on condition of anonymity With most of the staff having stopped coming to work after taking VRS most MTNL exchanges have roped in one or two staff from other departments to man the Quick customer serviceWe have been asked to multitask and the existing staff is made to do additional work It is unfair especially when you are not being paid for the past two months We have home loans childrens education and other household expenses Expenses have completely gone for a toss said a woman MTNL staffer on condition of anonymity People from all the four categories mdash A general managers B senior managers C clerks and operating staff and D peons and work assistants opted for VRS The category C and D employees are foot soldiers and they have left in the biggest numbers The management has not figured out how the system will work without its core team said Dilip Jadhav Secretary MTNL Kamgar Sangh a Shiv Senarun union headed by Sena leader Arvind SawantMTNL hired some of the retired staff on contract basis and over a thousand contractual staffers We are hoping the problem will be tackled quickly Jadhav saidBlame the drilling workLargescale drilling of roads has damaged underground utility services and cables across the city MTNL claims The BMC usually does not permit digging after May 15 as monsoon approaches Hence utility service providers carry out rampant drilling which damages our cables an MTNL official saidOn an average detecting damaged cables and repairing them does not take more than 24 hours But the staff crunch has made things difficult We are trying our best to resolve issues the officer addedOne damaged cable can affect 800 to 1000 connections The cables used by MTNL cost around 2500 per metre After adding the cost of laying it the expenditure comes up to 3000 per metre The cost of all damaged cables will be arrived at and sent to relevant utility companies to get it cleared the official saidThe official added that if a complaint is not addressed in a week customers are given a rebate We are also losing revenue as customers may switch to private companies he said Also customers forwarding landline calls to mobiles will be charged 80 paise to R1Attempts to contact V Srisankar Executive Director MTNL Mumbai did not yield any results14 lakhApproximate no of MTNL landline users in cityCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates