SKARDU, June 9: Subscribers in Baltistan on Monday complained about poor telecommunication facilities and internet service, saying the Special Communications Organisation had made the people’s life miserable.

Despite having promised to provide internet facility by March 2003, the SCO had not yet fulfilled its promise, they said. The organization is responsible for telecommunications in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the Northern Areas,

They said that people, including those related to businesses, tourism industry and non-governmental organizations, suffered most because of the lack of internet in Baltistan.

A number of them also said that without internet, information technology institute were unable to provide their students with latest knowledge.

Criticizing the SCO for what they termed its inefficiency and apathy towards public problems, they said that the telecom utility was also oblivious about the problems faced by people in making telephone calls from public call offices. The people, they added, were made to pay up additional charges over and above the prescribed fee.

Citing an example, they said in addition to the “official rates,” operators of the main PCO run by the SCO charge seven rupees more on each page faxed anywhere in the country.

They said that for this, the operators resort to techniques, including disconnecting calls every time a fax was sent, burdening the people with unnecessary financial strain.

The breakdown of the seven-rupee charge is as follows: five rupees for each page as “receipt paper charge” and two rupees being the PCO service charge, they said.

Terming the practice of overcharging unfair, many people said that instead of sending a multiple-page document using a single telephone call, the SCO operators send each page individually so that they can charge seven rupees again and again.

In addition to these problems, they said, the telecommunication link often remained “disturbed,” adding that it was almost impossible to make an out-going call after 9:30pm.

They said that cross-talk remained a constant nuisance, adding that while on the one hand it deprived people of their privacy and on the other hand making it difficult for them to communicate.

Meanwhile, officials contacted by this correspondent dismissed the allegations, saying that the telecommunication link in the region had been enhanced after the addition of more channels, providing better service to the people. Another complaint, which was pointed out by the people, was that people had to bear exorbitant call charges whenever they made calls to the Gole and Staque villages, despite being within the Baltistan region.

Expressing their disappointment, the people urged the government to let the telecom services be handed over to the Pakistan Telecommunication Company to improve the situation in this regard.

BUJ: An emergency meeting of the Baltistan Union of Journalists and Press Club was held here. The meeting, which was presided over by the club’s president, Khwaja Qasim Naseem, condemned the SCO officials’ attitude.

Earlier, officials of the SCO, Skardu, had barred local journalists from attending the briefing given by Director General SCO Azad Kashmir & Northern Areas Maj Gen Waheed Akhtar Malik during his visit to Skardu last week.