OKARA, Oct 18: Over 100 telephones in Mouza Kaku, Chak 28/GD and Mouza Bukshi have been lying dead for the last more than a year due to the damage of 14 joints of a three kilometer long underground cable during the construction of Buksi-Kaku Road.

Although subscribers of rural areas are deprived of the phone facility for long time, they have to pay regularly the monthly line rent to the PTCL.

When contacted, an official at the local divisional engineer office said the demand for the replacement of the damaged joints of the underground cable had been sent to the relevant department.

Talking to reporters at the Okara press club, a delegation of villagers, including Muhammad Amin, Khadim Ali and UC nazim Chaudhry Zahoor Ahmed Rubera of villages Fatehpur, Channu Mehtam, Mouza Hamandky, Chak Khan Muhammad and Mouza Shareen said that over 400 telephones in five villages had been dead for the last 10 months. They said despite lodging repeated complaints, the PTCL department did not bother to solve the genuine problem of subscribers.

They claimed that the Okara DE office had received the new cable, but the PTCL officials were reluctant in laying the cable for some unknown reason.