Many BSNL broadband subscribers in the main town of this district have been denied the internet service for the past one week.
This has put at stake the jobs of several private sector employees who have been asked to work from home amid the corona pandemic.
An official said owing to a “fault in one of the equipment” the internet services of around 50 its subscribers have been hit.
Many youth working for various private companies have been making rounds to the telephone exchange to urge the authorities for restoring the service to them, but each time they have to return disappointed.
“I’m not able to work from home as my broadband connection is out of service for a week now. It is not possible to go online on 2G mobile internet speed,” said Mubashir Khan, from Kadipora locality of the town.
Khan is a territorial sales head of Eureka Forbes, a multi-national company. “I’m not able to disburse salary to my employees and not even upload their daily attendance on a company app,” he said.
Khan said he was also supposed to avail weekly training from his HR, but in absence of the high speed internet he could not do that either.
Like Khan, there are several others in private jobs who were finding it difficult to carry with their routine work.
“My organization has categorically told me to work or face the axe,” said a youth from Lal Chowk locality of town. He works in banking sector.
He said it was not possible to move around in this lockdown and work from friends’ place either.
“The BSNL authorities say it will take time to restore our connections. It is not possible to work online on this 2G mobile internet speed. What option I have,” the banker asked.
Sameer Mushtaq, a freelance photojournalist whose work has been published in Al Jazeera and other publications also complained that in absence of the broad Band internet services his work was suffering.
“I wonder why the authorities don’t fix the problem,” he asked.
The subscribers want immediate restoration of the services so that their professional work does not suffer.
DGM, BSNL, Jitender Verma said 30 broadband connections in the town were defunct as the “equipment card in the exchange has developed a fault.”
“It needs to be replaced. As of now, we can’t procure it due to the ongoing lockdown,” he said.
The DGM said they were working on shifting and adjusting the card, from those numbers who are non-functional but in safe custody. “Hopefully, by tomorrow we will be able to restore their service,” he said.
