savramesh 37 Report post Posted September 20, 2009 Source NAGPUR: Consumers had a harrowing time on Saturday as Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) sealed 46 mobile towers of four private operators including Airtel, Idea, Vodafone and Tata Telecom. Only the government-run BSNL was spared as its officers had submitted a plan on Friday mentioning the steps they would take to comply with NMC's requirements. Unless the private mobile companies take immediate remedial steps, the problem would worsen as NMC plans to seal 135 more towers. Even if one third of the towers stop functioning, mobile services will be paralyzed in the city. Additional deputy municipal commissioner (ADMC) Ajay Ramteke told the media that even though NMC had been issuing notices to the mobile companies and owners of buildings where the towers were installed since last one year, many had not complied with the requirements. Ramteke said that there were 524 mobile towers in the city of which 261 were found to be violating Section 54 of Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning (MRTP) Act. The companies were issued notices regarding the 261 towers. However, the requirements were met only for 80 towers. 181 mobile towers were functioning illegally in the city, he said. The ADMC said that NMC had issued an ultimatum to the companies three days ago but other than BSNL, none of companies acted on it. On the first day, 20 towers of Airtel, 11 of Idea, 11 of Vodafone and four towers Tata were sealed. The action was taken in all ten zones under supervision of executive engineer (electrical) Sanjay Jaiswal. Ramteke said that to avoid inconvenience to consumers, NMC had devised a temporary solution. The mobile companies would have to pay Rs 1 lakh fee for three years, Rs 50,000 as deposit and Rs 10,000 as fine for not taking permission on time. "We will allow the towers to function for which money is deposited and give the companies eight days to submit the requisite documents. NMC has been deprived of around Rs 5 crore due to non-compliance of norms by the companies." TOI tried to contact the officials of mobile companies but all of them either gave evasive responses or did not take the call even after repeated attempts. Shalini Gupta, spokesperson of Airtel said that as she had not received information about NMC action she could not comment on the issue. Mohana Manjre of Vodafone did not take the call in spite of repeated attempts. Other officials claimed that they were not authorised to speak to the media. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
commonman 228 Report post Posted September 20, 2009 How come Reliance Towers were spared? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KanagaDeepan 1,084 Report post Posted September 21, 2009 How come Reliance Towers were spared? Hey, COMMON MAN... Come On Man... You know the reasons.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
