After MiD DAY report, officials visit Sadar Bazaar where traders have been hit by network problems

A special team of senior MTNL officers paid a visit to Asia's largest market Sadar Bazaar after MiD DAY reported that the area is losing business because of poor service by the telecom giant. The officers have taken down all the numbers that are facing problems and have assured speedy action.

MiD DAY had reported how more than 1.5 lakh landline phones in the city including thousands in Sadar Bazaar alone have fallen silent. Internet services have also been hit. In order to get their voices heard traders also protested by burning their landline phones in front of the local MTNL office on Thursday. The market had set up a monitoring system of static IP and 16 CCTV cameras a few months back but even that connection is down for the last 20 days as the broadband network is not working.u00a0

MTNL officials came to the market on Saturday and met the traders. The officers have been asked to identify the problem and submit a report on the same. The traders took the officials inside the market to give them a live demonstration of how mobiles don't work in the area because of network problems and they are totally dependent on landline services.

The officers then went from shop to shop to note down the numbers of the malfunctioning phone lines. "Every second trader is complaining about their fixed phone and Internet not working for over a month now. Neither are the MTNL officials restoring the service, nor are they registering complaints. There is a huge mobile network problem at Sadar Bazaar due to narrow lanes so we are compelled to maintain landlines.

The market association had applied for an IP address on an MTNL telephone (011-23611166) which is a 40-year-old connection. The line was linked up with the IP address to the connection at people's homes so that we could scrutinise the footage from 16 CCTV cameras that were installed at the market, two years ago," said Paramjit Singh Pamma, Vice-Chairman of Federation of Sadar Bazar Traders Association.

After receiving numerous complaints from the area, MTNL headquarters asked these officers to make a personal visit to the area and file a report.

"We were asked to go to the Sadar Bazaar area. After reaching there we found the area is facing serious problems as there is no mobile connectivity and most of the lines are down. We have noted down all the numbers and have filed our report. The lines will become functional in two to three days," said MTNL officer P J Pandey, who visited the area.

STRIKING A BLOW
The non-executive employees union of the state-run MTNL said last week it might decide to go on strike during Commonwealth games next month, if the management tries to cut jobs. The company has been designated as the official telecom service provider for Commonwealth Games 2010, to be held in Delhi, and it has already received Rs. 182 crore from the government for providing infrastructure.
MTNL, which provides services in Delhi and Mumbai, has over 43,000 employees. Of this, about 36,000 employees are in the non-executive category and over 7,000 are executives. Concerned over the huge wage bills eating into its revenues, MTNL is understood to have approached the government for reportedly laying off up to two-thirds of its workforce.
The company spent Rs. 717 crore as staff costs for retirement benefits during the quarter ended June 30, 2010. MTNL incurred a loss of Rs. 451 crore for the quarter.