PDP activists' protest against ban on prepaid mobile connection in J-K
6 Nov 2009, 1838 Hrs

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Srinagar, Nov 6 Activists of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) led by chief Mehbooba Mufti, staged a peaceful march in Srinagar on Friday to protest against the ban on prepaid mobile phone connections in the State.

Earlier, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had decided not to issue fresh pre-paid mobile connections in Jammu and Kashmir on account of security concerns. And as per the policy the existing pre-paid SIM cards were banned in the State on November 1.

Mehbooba Mufti said that the decision has resulted in complete chaos, as thousands of people who were associated with recharge kiosks in the State have been rendered jobless.

"Because of this ban 40,000 youth of the state have gone jobless. When prepaid mobile services are available throughout the country, it is a discrimination against the 3.8 million people using this service in the state," Mehbooba Mufti said.

Mufti further said that that the residents of the State consider the decision as lack of faith in them.

"The State Chief (Omar Abdullah) and the Home minister have said that situation is improving in Jammu and Kashmir and the number of militants operating in the State are reducing. In this scenario, they should have tried to win the faith of people. We ask them to show faith oin the people of the State," Mufti added.

Mobile services were introduced in the Kashmir valley a few years ago. It is estimated that there will be business loss of around Rs 3 billion in the State as out of the 45 million connections, 3.9 million connections are pre-paid.

The Ministry had even asked the Department of Telecommunications to take appropriate action in the matter for implementation of the decision.

The step came in the wake of the reports that proper verification was not being done while providing such pre-paid mobile connections by the service providers/vendors.

In some cases, a single person had been issued with multiple number of connections. Fake documents/identity numbers were also reportedly being used by the vendors particularly, in the case of pre-paid connections. This situation had given rise to serious security concerns. (ANI)

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