Team Herald
MAPUSA: GOACAN has sought the intervention of Collector R Menaka to keep the public utility telephone numbers functional during the COVID-19 lockdown.
In a letter to the Collector, GOACAN pointed out that they have been receiving several complaints from consumers that many public utility telephone numbers have been non-functional for days during the ongoing COVID-19-related lockdown thereby putting the general public, particularly senior citizens through hardship and stress.
GOACAN informed that their volunteers have been regularly doing a phone-in to check whether these public utility BSNL landlines are functional or not.
The complaints of non-functional landlines can be easily done by the staff of the concerned department at the village or taluka level from any part of Goa. During the lockdown period of the last 60 days GOACAN volunteers have been checking the landlines of police stations, health centres and village panchayats to name a few besides the 24-hour helplines and toll free numbers and have found many landlines non-functional due to damage caused to BSNL underground cables, which are a constant problem due to the negligence of the road work contractors and their JCB operators as well as disconnection of the landlines by BSNL due to non-payment of bills by the concerned offices.
GOACAN has requested the Collector to impress upon the heads of departments to conduct regular checks on the functionality of all their taluka and village level office phone lines and act immediately to clear all outstanding bills as consumers will not hesitate to file complaints under the Consumer Protection Act for deficiency in service if no action is taken to make these phone lines functional.
