Uri (Baramulla), Mar 17:Four year after the installment of some eleven Jio Network towers, even a single has not been beaming signal, much to the dismay of local residents in this frontier town of north-Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
A delegation of locals told news agency Global News Service (GNS) that despite bringing the issue into notice of authorities on many occasions, nothing significant has been seen as being done on the ground level.
“Jio the so-called largest service provider started to install towers here since 2017 and upto this date already installed eleven of them at various locations including at Machi Krand (June 2017) Laribal (October 2017) Nambla (November 2017) Syedpora (November 2017) Paranpillan (April 2018) Trikanjan Boniyar (April 2018) Bandi (July 2018) Uri Main (May 2018) Bernate Boniyar (May 2019) Ghar Kote (May-2020) and Sultandaki (June 2020)”, they said adding that “What intrigues one is that none of the towers’ is functional as of now.”
Zahoor Ahmad Qureshi, a resident of Ladibal Uri said that a Jio tower was installed towards year 2017 in their village. “Three years have passed since then, but we are yet to see the tower being made functional for the reasons best known to the authorities concerned”, he said.
“We had pinned high hopes to be able to access seamless internet and voice calls, but that seems a distant dream”, he lamented.
Sarpanch Bernate Boniyar Mir Mohammad had a similar story to tell. The Telecom Company had installed a tower in their village in 2019, he said, however what has left them dismayed is the defunct state of the tower. “Our children have to travel 8 to 10 kilometer away from homes to use the internet for online classes or submission of any online form document”, the village-head said.
Meanwhile a land-owner identifying himself as one Aijaz Ahmad Sheikh said that even as the tower from Jio Company was installed in year 2018, however neither has it been made functional nor he been paid any charges for the leased out land.
“I approached them (Jio officials) on many times to at least clear the dues incurred, however they refuse to on one pretext or the other”, he said.
When GNS contacted a concerned service-provider official of Jammu and Kashmir Anji Kachroo to talk on the issue – the official however refused to share anything ‘as she was not officially allowed to give any statement without consent from the higher-ups.’
The local residents have in the meantime made a fervent appeal to the authorities concerned to take up the issue on a priority basis to alleviate their sufferings.