Across the board there are complaints of call drops, network outage and connectivity gaps. Yet, across the State there is also opposition to mobile towers in villages that has led to the government planning a policy to facilitate their installation. While it is still too early to get into the details of the policy, the fact that the government is looking at facilitating the setting up of mobile telephone towers for greater connectivity underlines the seriousness of the opposition in the State.
There is, however, a divide across the State among people on this issue, with some supporting the towers and others opposing them. The youth for instance have no objection to the towers in their vicinity, while the seniors are more cautious in their acceptance of the towers.
Across South Goa in particular, various panchayats at gram sabha meetings have passed resolutions, opposing mobile towers in their villages citing fears of health problems, yet there are also complaints from all corners of bad connectivity. Against this, students in particular question why people believe in rumours, to oppose the towers and are prepared to support their installation, for better connectivity to the net. In the absence of adequate data to support any particular health hazard caused to due to mobile tower radiation, the youth are not prepared to buy any argument against the towers. Whatever independent research is available has shown that the electro magnetic field radiation from a cell phone tower is low and its effects on a person’s health are almost negligible.
We live in a world that is increasingly depending on cell phones and good quality voice, picture and video transmission, forcing the need of transmission towers to be installed at regularly spaced distances to give the best quality service. A large part of our communication today is through the phone, with news, pictures and videos being accessed through the handheld device. Everybody wants the service, yet there has been opposition to the towers in some villages, that has even been backed by some panchayats.
The opposition goes beyond health of the people. Just a few weeks ago, coconut plantation owners had raised the issue of their coconuts getting affected by the presence of cell phone towers in the vicinity of the groves. There are a few coconut plantation owners who have claimed that the radiation from the towers, that have the same height as the coconut trees, has started affecting their plantations and the coconuts. Their claim is that the size of the coconut has begun to shrink quite drastically and so too has the water content decreased. Besides this, they claim that while one side of the coconut goes brown, the other remains green. There are also allegations of a drop in the productivity of other fruit-bearing trees, like cashew trees, and disappearance of birds from the area around the towers.
There is no scientific evidence of any kind as yet to back the claims, but the concerns raised by people of health issues and of owners of coconut plantations and traders that the nut is being affected need to be taken seriously and studies initiated to verify the claim, and if found to be true measures to contain the radiation taken.
That is what the government will have to do as it starts working in the policy for towers. As stated by IT Minister Rohan Khaunte, the policy is at an early stage and it would be pre-mature to talk about it. This gives the government adequate time to take into consideration the fears raised by the people and ensure that radiation levels are not exceeded. One thing is for certain, the towers are here to stay, their acceptability in the locality will have to come, just as everybody has accepted the mobile phone in their pockets.
