Grant Goa ind. Telecom circle: Shanataram
Sandesh
Prabhudesai
31 August 2007
Rajya Sabha MP Shantaram
Naik has demanded independent Goa circles for telecommunications as well as postal
services.
In a special mention made in Rajya Sabha in this regard yesterday,
Mr Naik said Goa is being considered telecom and postal district in spite of Goa
being granted constitutional status of a State in 1987.
He argued that the
union ministry cannot indirectly derecognize Goa's constitutional status on the
grounds of its small size and less number of population. With an area of 3702
sq kms, Goa has been included in the Maharashtra circle by the BSNL, with its
headquarters at Mumbai, he said.
Mr Naik also brought to the notice of the
House that the BSNL has decided to shut down the call centre set up in Panaji
while the tiny state is having over three lakh subscriber base in the 13-lakh
strong state.
Mr. Naik further said that the tourist state has around two
lakh landline subscribers, around 76,000 mobile users as well as around 5000 WLL
Tarang subscribers, besides around 24 lakh tourists visiting the state annually.
In
order to reduce the congestion at the Pune headquarters, the BSNL had decided
to set up separate main switching centres (MSC) of the mobile as well as Wireless
Local Loop (WLL) service in Goa. However, without providing any proper justification,
it was shifted to Kolhapur last year, he complained.
Mr. Naik has demanded
that these centres be immediately restored in Goa.
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