January 06, 2008	Sunday	Zilhaj 26, 1428

BADIN, Jan 5: Approximately 900 telephone lines were out of order for the last ten days only in Gharibabad and other localities on Shah Latif road causing immense inconvenience to the people specially the journalists. The disruption was caused by the recent violent incidents in which the underground telephone cables were damaged.

The PTCL did not make any efforts to rectify the fault despite numerous complaints by the subscribers. The main victims were the journalists as their residential phones as well as those of Badin press club and Aiwan-e-Sahafat were non-functional.

The subscribers have become helpless as the senior PTCL bosses at Karachi and Hyderabad have almost refused to hear their grievances. The subscribers were also in a fix as to whom should they lodge their complaints as the complaint centres ceased to exist after introduction of computerised system.

Previously, in case of fault in telephone connection, the local office could be contacted to rectify the fault, but now the subscribers were compelled to register their complaints on 18, which will be fed in computerised fault management system and later the same would be referred to the local exchange for removal of fault.

This is not only causing extra burden to the subscribers to lodge complaints time and again with the computer but it was also causing unnecessary delay in rectifying even minor faults.

Though the local PTCL officials claims that miscreants had torched and damaged telephone cabinets, but neither a formal

FIR was lodged nor losses were assessed by the department. The officials said that telephone cabinets would be supplied from Karachi which would take sometime in streamlining the system. Demanding restoration of old system of lodging of complaints, the people have sought immediate restoration of telephone system and an easy procedure for redressal of their grievances.