SIALKOT, May 16: The suspension of thousands of PTCL lines in Daska for the last three months is due to overflowing drains, which affected the main underground junction. Speaking to journalists, the PTCL Daska officials confirmed that sewage seeped into the Daska Digital Telephone Exchange underground junction, as it was located in a low-lying area. These lines remained drenched and were damaged as a result of which thousands of connections were severed.

They passed the buck on the Tehsil Municipal Administration which, they said, had failed to improve the city’s worn-out drainage system which allows water to flow in many residential and commercial areas.

Moreover, unabated digging of the city’s all the main and link roads and streets by the TMA’s non-technical staff, the national telephone service’s other main cables have also been damaged on the Nisbat Road, Pasrur Road, Sohawa, Ranjhai, Jessarwala-Pasrur Bypass, Kutchery Road and Daska Kalan.

They said the company was suffering a huge financial loss and the subscribers disconnection problems.

Answering a question, they said “we have written to the Daska TMA for financial and technical compensation but the authorities concerned have not given a positive response so far.

The officials claimed that all their efforts to restore phone connections by rectifying the damaged system had failed because of sewage and digging.

Meanwhile, the PTCL subscribers have once again launched a strong protest against telephone disconnections for the last three months. Some of them said they had now applied for the permanent disconnections to get rid of the prolonged tension.

Telephone Consumers Association (Daska) chairman Muhammad Ilyas Jalali said more than 3,000 telephone connections, out of the 7000 of the local digital exchange, had been cut off owing to technical faults.

The affected people have urged State Minister for Railways Ali Asjad Malhi, who is a native of Daska, and the PTCL chairman to look into the matter.

Trauma centre: The district government has allocated Rs20 million for a trauma centre.

This was stated by district nazim Akmal Cheema while presiding over a health department meeting held here on Tuesday to review the project.

He said the district government would make all out efforts to remove the hurdles besides providing resources for making the project operational within three months for providing advanced medical and health facilities, including MRI, CT scan and X-ray, on low rates.

EDO (health) Dr Umar Javaid said the former district government had imported second-hand machinery for the centre worth Rs64.5 million.

He said a German company was being contacted to install new machinery at the centre.

The former district government had launched the project at the Allama Iqbal Memorial Hospital in 2002. Due to the poor planning and technical faults, the project has been delayed.

The meeting was told that an emergency department would be established on the ground floor of the building of the trauma centre, while neuro-surgery and orthopaedic departments would be established in the upper portion of the building. The CCB would own and run all the operational and management matters of this trauma centre, while the district management would assist the CCB members.