Saleem Javed
Port Blair, Nov 29: A group of villagers of Panchavati area, Middle Andaman recently took the responsibility of maintaining underground damaged Optical Fiber Cables (OFC) of BSNL, a difficult talk, which should have been done by BSNL long back.
According to report since last nearly 10 years, the underground OFC cables from Panchavati to Betapur area was damaged but even after repeated complaints the OFC cable was not repaired, finally a group of residents of the area took up the responsibility and repaired the OFC with the help of a technician of BSNL.
For several years none felt the need of a Land Line after mobile network reached Andaman but now due to Internet people are again demanding for land line from BSNL.
Villagers told Andaman Sheekha that they have been complaining about the damaged OFC since last several years but now some officials of BSNL have told them to repair the OFC by themselves, if they can.
The BSNL official also reportedly assured to pay the labourer cost for this work as in case this work is done through proper channel, it will take huge time for tendering process and other paper works.
Finding no other way, the villagers decided not to wait for the tendering process which may take several more years and they decided to dug roadside holes and bring out OFC cables and repair the same with the help of one technician.
Thanks to this effort they are now successful in restoring some portion of the underground OFC line which will serve the purpose for now.
Earlier people of Andaman Nicobar Islands have seen several news, where villagers came out and repaired road, when roads were not repaired by Administration, in this case villagers repaired OFC themselves. This is sad to note that administration is failing in several fronts and finally public has to come out and do the repair work themselves. “We are paying tax for everything but we are not getting even basic infrastructure in our area,” said a villager.
