FAISALABAD, Nov 18: Hundreds of subscribers of the People’s Colony Telephone Exchange have been facing innumerable problems due to the negligence of the authorities concerned.

A survey conducted by this correspondent revealed every fifth subscriber is at war with the faulty system in Batala Colony, Karim Town, Gulbahar Colony, Kehkashan Colony, Dhuddiwala, Madina Town, Al-Najaf Colony, Fatehabad, Sarfraz Colony, Allama Iqbal Colony, Warispura, Barkatpura, Dogranwan Road, Satiana Road, Maqbool Road and Samundri Road.

Cross connection, disruption and erratic transmission are the recurring problems the subscribers are confronted with.

They subscribers complained that they were facing difficulties getting the desired number connected in first attempt. Even calls within city were not easy to get connected because of the faulty system, they added.

They said their phones remained held up for days together and they had to offer bribe to linemen to get these in order.

‘They do rectify telephones but at the same time leave several others in the area inoperative to keep their pot boiling,’ complained a housewife.

They maintained the divisional engineer was hardly ever available in the exchange to meet the public grievances. Consequently, they had to return without getting their complaints registered, they complained.

They urged the PTCL chairman to send a technical team for the scrutiny of the system so as to provide a sigh of relief to the subscribers.

ARRESTED: People’s Colony police on Sunday claimed to have arrested a pusher Pervez Akhtar with two kilograms of opium.