the goan I network
MARGAO
Labour issues have left many a telephone dead for days now in many BSNL exchanges across the state.
At Cuncolim, there is no full-time JTO to man the exchange, with BSNL officials saying that one JTO is now looking after as many as four telephone exchanges, including Cuncolim, Chinchinim and Balli.
Senior BSNL officials told The Goan that the JTO’s holding charge of additional exchanges is not an issue, but conceded that absence of the contract labourers have indeed come in the way of the department in attending to telephone faults promptly.
“The problem of labour is not only affecting the Cuncolim telephone exchange, but other exchanges in the district,” a senior official said, while attributing the problem to the issue of payments.
“Our existing staff attends to the normal duties if the fault lies with the overhead lines. The problem arises only when there’s a fault in the underground line and when the contact workers are not available to attend to the faults,” the official informed, while hoping a turnaround in the situation in the immediate future.
In the meantime, the Cuncolim Civic and Consumer Forum has expressed concern over the situation at the Cuncolim BSNL exchange.
Forum Secretary Lorna Fernandes said Cuncolim has no full-fledged JTO and that the contract workers who have not been paid their wages have not reported to work, only adding to the problem. “Our information reveals that a number of lines have been dead since November 30 for want of repairs since there are no labourers around to attend to the faults,” Lorna added.
When The Goan called Dy GM, BSNL, South S B Akiwat to shed light on the problems faced by consumers at Cuncolim and other exchanges, he attributed the problem to certain issues, which the department has been trying to fix over the last few days.
He, however, pointed out there is no such problem at exchanges like Margao as regular BSNL employees are deployed to attend to line faults.
