Port Blair, 12 Nov 2020
The residents of Campbell Bay, Great Nicobar are unhappy with BSNL for various reasons. One of the key reason is non-availability of new broadband connections even in the main areas of Campbell Bay.
Great Nicobar Island have several villages where there are no broadband connections, which can be understood because it takes time to build ground network and the existing ground network of BSNL was destroyed in Tsunami.
Then comes the Campbell Bay and Govind Nagar Panchayat which is in proximity to the exchange but still no new broadband connections are being issued to the general public. The USOF has entrusted the responsibility to BSNL as the project implementation agency for Chennai-Andaman and Nicobar Islands Submarine Optical Fiber Cable Project. Thousands of kilometres of cables have been laid in the depth of the oceans to bring better connectivity to the Islands and here BSNL in Campbell Bay couldn’t even lay cables on ground to provide better connectivity to the residents.
It has been reported by the locals of Campbell Bay that everytime someone approaches BSNL to get a new broadband connection, the staffs always makes excuses of not having drop wire and ports. It has also been reported that the BSNL Exchange Campbell Bay has been sitting duck on a pile of more than fifty new broadband connection applications.
Every now and then the staffs of the BSNL at Campbell Bay manage to show some favours to influential people or some acquaintances by providing them with new broadband connections, but no new connections are being provided to the general public.
The employees of BSNL always transfer the blame to the higher ups in Port Blair for their issues. They always inform the public that they have requested the higher ups for more cables and equipments, but they haven’t received any response. It is to note that BSNL does not consider itself as a service provider in these remote regions of the Islands, it considers itself as a charitable trust, at-least that is what the behaviour of the local employees of the company signify.
Further the locals also informed Nicobar Times that some employees of BSNL have been in the Island for far too long and they are more politicians than technicians. These employees run the show behind the curtains. They are the ones who decide who gets a broadband connection and who is not worthy of getting a connection.
The dynamic Chief General Manager of BSNL and his team of highly talented engineers and managers who have made the Islands proud by bringing in better connectivity by conquering all odds, even during the times of a global pandemic, should look into the issue of the residents of Campbell Bay, Great Nicobar and try and solve their problems. All hopes of the Islanders of Great Nicobar are on the higher ups of BSNL, Andaman and Nicobar Islands as the local BSNL employees have failed them.
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