------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Documented by Goa Desc Resource Centre Ph:2252660 Website: www.goadesc.org Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Press Clippings on the web: http://www.goadesc.org/mem/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Colvale 'storm' reaches BSNL office over classification ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Margao, Ponda, Vasco - (Telephone) rental Rs 180; Colvale rental Rs 250, Is Colvale a metropolitan city?" screamed one placard prominently displayed at a morcha taken out by villagers of Colvale, Sodiem-Siolim, Guirim (Arrady), Revora, Nadora, Aldona, Parra, Moira and Nachinola on Thursday.
The protesters were challenging the classification of rural areas as urban for the purpose of rentals. An estimated 1,000 villagers, led by Colvale sarpanch, Nilkanth Halarnkar, participated in the protest action.
They marched to the BSNL General Manager's office at Patto, where they also conducted a public meeting to voice their protests against "unjustified" telephone tariffs and billing.A delegation of the protesters also met the Goa Telecom General Manager, and conveyed to him their grievances.
Telephone subscribers from Colvale and Aldona have for long been protesting against the BSNL's decision to classify their villages as urban areas as they come under the Panjim Short Distance Charging Area (SDCA). This has resulted in higher rental charges for subscribers in these villages.
"Colvale is a village, a rural area. But we are paying a rental of Rs 250 per month; other big areas are paying Rs 180 per month", says businessman L Dessai.
"They cannot put us under Panjim", says another aggrieved member in the crowd. When contacted telephonically, the recently appointed General Manager A K Desarkar said: "It is not within the scope of my powers. It is a policy decision, which has to be taken by the Department of Telecommunications and the BSNL Headquarters, New Delhi." In fact, the matter has been forwarded to the headquarters, and a decision on this matter is pending from them.
The subscribers of Arrady, Guirim meanwhile say that they have to pay a rental of Rs 250, while other wards of Guirim are being charged Rs 110 per month. These affected villagers claim that BSNL, Goa did not inform them that the rentals would be increased from Rs 110 to Rs 250 from May 2003.
The villagers also claim that BSNL has stated that the telephone rentals will be charged as per the exchange capacity, but are actually billing them based on the SDCA capacity. They have questioned the BSNL on this front.
A letter dated September 22, 2003 was referred to, wherein the earlier General Manager of BSNL had stated that the subscribers whose telephones were found installed beyond Colvale census town (within the rural area) would be charged as per rural tariff and that this process would take a minimum of two months for implementation.But more than five months have lapsed and nothing has been done as yet, the villagers charge.
"We have visited the BSNL office eight to ten times, but nothing has happened. Even now, there is no guarantee that anything will happen. We have given the General Manager 15-day deadline, and if nothing happens, we will take out a state-level morcha", says Mr Dessai. ---------------------------------- HERALD 12/3/04 page 3 ----------------------------------
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