Dozens of BSNL towers in Budgam non functional

BSNL customers from dozens of villages of this central Kashmir district have complained of poor or no service due to malfunctioning of the cellular network’s mobile towers.
Around a dozen towers in various areas of the district Budgam are out of service, a delegation of customers told.

The towers that remain mostly out of services are at Khag, Aripanthan, Hanjura, Gojethaji, Dodekhatoo, Nasurallahpora, Gondipora, Chill Arizal, Nagam villages of the district. “These towers are of no use as most of the time they are out of order and we are not able to get any network,” said a member of the delegation. “These towers have become the money minting machines for their operators as the diesel meant for the gen sets to run the towers is being misappropriated, and it seems there is no accountability of these tower operators from BSNL higher ups.”
“Whenever the electricity in the area goes off, the mobile network automatically shuts down, makes us to wait for hours during load shedding period to make a call,” said a BSNL subscriber from Gondipora area.
When contacted, General Manager BSNL Muhammad Salim Beigh, while accepting malfunctioning of BSNL towers said, “ We trying our best to get these towers back into service. There is shortage of fuel as we are not able to supply the diesel to all the sites due to ongoing circumstances.”