HYDERABAD, Dec 6: Members of the district council on Saturday expressed concern over mushroom growth of cellular phone companies’ towers in the midst of residential areas despite the fact that they posed serious threat to people’s health.

Javed Kardar tabled a resolution about the towers, which was referred to the council’s committee on environment by convenor Zafar Ali Rajput.

The convenor observed that the council would write to the environment department in this regard to obtain a report about health hazards of towers.

Mr Kardar said that number of towers operated by cell-phone connection companies was increasing in the densely-populated areas and everyone seemed interested in getting one installed on their rooftops because the company paid heavily for the towers.

He said that cell-phones were a facility but people remained largely unaware of towers’ electro magnetic radiations which they released into environment.

He said that the district government should adopt measures to address the issue by ensuring that the towers were installed away from population.

Hussain Bux Hussaini objected to the resolution on ground that what would happen to cell-phone facility if the towers were removed. Some medical reports should have been attached with the resolution to prove if it really posed a serious threat to people’s health.

Mohammad Ashraf supported the resolution and said that an investigation should be conducted into the issue while Dr Arif Razmi proposed that since the issue had been taken up by Sindh High Court and provincial environment department had pleaded before the court the department should be asked to share its findings with the council.

Mohammad Ahsan said that majority of people were unaware of so many things and cellular phone companies were in breach meeting mandatory requirements for installation of towers.

He said that out of greed people were getting the towers installed just to earn money. “God forbid! If there was even a mild earthquake or windstorm they would collapse because the companies don’t bother to check foundations of the house before installing the towers and people give bribes to the officials to get them installed,” he said.

The council extended an invitation to Karachi City Nazim Mustafa Kamal to visit Hyderabad through a joint resolution put forward by Javed Kardar and Babu Ilyas.

Munawar Khan Zai’s resolution called for complete demolition of encroachments.