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Phone problem hits NDMC work

By Sandeep Joshi

NEW DELHI JUNE 25. For the past 20 days, several senior New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) officials and departments have not been able to make outgoing calls. This has affected the functioning of the civic body considerably.

The NDMC's General Branch co-ordinates with the departments in depositing their telephone bills. But apparently this time the Branch failed to receive the bills and also did not bother to enquire into the matter. "Generally, all phone bills reach the General Branch who then forward it to respective departments for verification after which the bill is deposited,'' official sources said.

But it is over a fortnight now that outgoing call facility was withdrawn from over two dozen phones which even included a phone in the Chairperson's office. "Though his phone was fully restored within a day after making payment of pending bills, most still do not have outgoing call facility,'' they added.

Among the officers and departments whose phone facilities are partially restricted include the Transport Department, the Accounts Department, the Information Technology Department, the Public Relations Department, the Personnel Department, the Commercial Department and the Welfare Department. "Though some officers made efforts and got their pending bills deposited, but other departments are still relying on the General Branch to get their outgoing call facility restored,'' the sources added.

``I had to stand for an hour at the telephone exchange to get a copy of the duplicate bill. I found that there were at least three previous bills which were not paid, so the phones were partially cut. Now it is because of our efforts that the old bills were cleared so that the phone might get fully restored by tomorrow,'' a peon of an affected department said.

When contacted, the NDMC's Director (Public Relations), Madan Thapliyal, accepted that at least two of his phones (23362267 and 23363753) were not having outgoing call facility for the past two weeks. "We have to makes several faxes to media organisations and advertisement companies. Employees have to go to other offices to do these faxes which is causing a lot of inconvenience,'' he said. But surprisingly he failed to tell about other departments who are suffering with the same problems. "I have no information about them,'' he added.

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