Other States - New Delhi   

PCO owners want rules relaxed

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI JUNE 14 .Arguing that slashing of STD and ISD rates over the past one year and introduction of virtual calling cards having resulted in sharp drop in their daily earnings, telephone booth operators of the Capital have approached the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to permit them to sell cold drinks, beverages and snacks to sustain themselves and their families.

``We are on the verge of starvation. It is the only way to provide two square meals a day to our family,'' said Gurnam Singh, the general secretary of Rajeev Gandhi Viklang STD PCO Association.

A delegation of the Association recently met and submitted a memorandum to the Municipal Commissioner, Rakesh Mehta, and the Leader of House and Standing Committee Chairman, Ram Babu Sharma, in this regard. "The condition of physically challenged people who have been allotted telephone booths by the MCD are worse,'' the memorandum said.

``The civic body should consider this request on humanitarian grounds and relax the stringent provisions in its regulations for running telephone booth,'' the memorandum urged.

In fact, Mr. Singh conceded that a large number of telephone booth operators had already started selling cold drinks and snacks over the past six months as this period has resulted in a sharp drop in their earnings. This only results in undue harassment to the operators by the MCD staff. Very often the operators are challenged and equipments and cold drinks are seized by them.

``What else can we do. We cannot sustain ourselves only on the earning from telephone booths. Not only have the number of people coming to the booth come down substantially but also there has been drop in the STD and ISD rates. Cities which were earlier on STD calls are now metered as local calls. All this has reduced our business by one-fourth. Thus I decided to start selling other items,'' said Gagan Singh, who runs a public telephone booth in R. K. Puram, Sector-XII.

Said the Standing Committee Chairman, Ram Babu Sharma: "The problem seems to be genuine. So we have to find a way out and amend the provisions for allotting public telephone booths particularly to the physically challenged.''

Mr. Sharma said the main purpose to provide public telephone booths to physically challenged persons was to help them sustain themselves on their own. "Now if it has become difficult for them to feed themselves and their family members, we need to expand their business operations,'' he said, adding that the officials have been asked to study the memorandum and submit a report.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Other States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Cong. `ploy' to keep vote bank intact
• A drive or a farce?
• Cooperative Bill will be passed in special Assembly session: CM
• Rs.138 crores for new projects
• PCO owners want rules relaxed
• Cable fault affects MTNL services
• DWGE to start more courses for working professionals
• Action against five more AIIMS doctors soon

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu