With telecom services disrupted in Bargur hills for the fifth consecutive day, Erode West District Unit of Hindu Munnani has urged the district administration to restore the service at the earliest as people in the hills are affected.
In a petition submitted to Anthiyur Tahsildar, its vice-chairman R. Sakthivel said that work is on to double-lane Anthiyur – Kollegal road and currently boulders on the ghat road are being removed using earthmovers. The petition said that BSNL is the only telecom service provider in the hill area serving people in remote village. But during road digging works, the optic fibre cable (OFC) was damaged and the telecom service in the hill area was disrupted frequently in the past five months. He said that people in 27 villages were affected as they could not communicate during emergencies.
The petition said that pregnant women and accident victims can be transported only in ambulances to the nearest hospital or to the government hospital in the plains and people in remote villages face difficulty in reaching out to the 108 service.
In the absence of mobile network, the victims could not reach the hospital on time, the petition said and wanted steps to be taken on a war-footing to restore the service. The petition wanted the damaged OFC to be replaced at the earliest.
Meanwhile, BSNL on Saturday received OFC for 3 km from the private company that had damaged the lines during road digging works. A senior BSNL official said that replacement works would be carried out on Sunday and service is expected to resume by Monday.