Shimoga district unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded that the services being offered by the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., a public sector undertaking, be upgraded.
A delegation of BJP leaders, comprising Rajya Sabha Member and BJP’s district unit president Ayanur Manjunath, Shikaripur MLA B.Y. Raghavendra, ex-MLA K.G. Kumaraswamy, party functionaries S. Dattatri, Bilaki Krishnamurthy and others, met Vivek Jaiswal, General Manager of BSNL here on Saturday to discuss the subject.
Mr. Manjunath said that the mobile subscribers of BSNL were put to hardship owing to various problems, including lack of voice clarity and poor signal coverage. There was delay in attending the complaints related to technical snags with landline connections, he said.
Salekoppa Ramachandra, BJP leader from Tirthahalli, said that as the topography of Malnad region was unique, the BSNL should strengthen its network there by installing additional towers. During monsoon, there would be frequent disruption in power supply in the Malnad region as electricity poles fell due to heavy rain and wind. To ensure mobile towers and telephone exchange function normally in the Malnad region during disruption in power supply, the BSNL should set up adequate generators and ensure regular stock of diesel to run them, whenever required, he said.
Mr. Raghavendra urged the BSNL to provide broadband connection to industrial estates established by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board at Sanda, a village in Shikaripur taluk. The broadband connection was necessary to attract investors, he added.
S. Dattatri, party’s district unit secretary, said the quality of 3G services offered by BSNL was not on the expected lines, forcing the subscribers to switch over to private mobile providers. Mr. Kumaraswamy urged the BSNL to provide internet connection to all gram panchayats in the district.
Mr. Jaiswal said that the problems would be addressed by strengthening the infrastructure. The Shimoga divisional office of BSNL would soon submit a proposal to its main office for installation of more number of base transceiver station (BTS) towers to improve the efficiency of 2G and 3G services, he said
