Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, September 18: The residents of Chouldary to Port Mout area of South Andaman region are gnashing their teeth with frustration over being deprived of Broadband services by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited since January, 2019.
As per reports, due to the NHIDCL road construction work in this region the cables of BSNL got damaged and hence since 08th January, 2019, many residents of Chouldari and Port Mout have no access to broadband facilities of BSNL.
Largely affected are those whose business is completely depended upon the internet. The area has several schools and the children had to come all the way long to Bhathubasti to get the support of Internet for completing their school projects.
“When we registered our complaint, BSNL employees informed that they don’t have long wires and hence they cannot extend support to repair and asked us to remain satisfied with the 3G services,” said Mr Amit Hawaldar, a shop owner of Pout Mout area.
“Is BSNLs maintenance and repairing facilities restricted only to the people residing in the urban areas, are we not humans?” Mr Amit questioned.
“We get several school projects and to complete those internet is very necessary, as there is no cyber café or shops having internet facilities in this area, we had to waste our time to travel till Bhathubasti, spend extra money to buy bus tickets to complete the school projects,” said a 10th class student in case of anonymity.
This must be taken into note that Chouldary to Port Mout is a vast area and it’s a residential area of Hundreds of people. Nimbubagicha, Port Mout Basti, Gopal Nagar are the villages, that come in this region.
If this area, which is just 20 km away from the capital city of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Port Blair, is facing such an issue of connectivity, one can imagine, what will be the situation of the other far flung islands.
Residents demanded the Andaman Nicobar Administration to immediately direct BSNL to provide broadband facilities. “If they cannot do so then we demand compensation from the BSNL for their biased attitude of facilitating only one portion of people with broadband in a particular land,” said Mr Amit Hawaldar.
