Team Herald
PANJIM: In a fact check conducted by GOACAN it was revealed that the landline numbers of various police stations were non-functional due to pending bills.
To seek details, Herald spoke to GOACAN co-ordinator Roland Martins, who said, “When we called these numbers we got the message “this number is temporarily out of service”. GOACAN then did a fact check finding exercise with BSNL Head Office to check if the same was a technical problem or a matter of unpaid bills. We found that numbers were out of service due to pending bills. We asserted that it is important to keep the communication lines open for consumers as police stations are utility services”.
Salim Shaikh, Deputy Superintendent of Police and Sub-Divisional Police Officer of Vasco said, “Since staff of accounts section of Police Department was deployed for assembly election duty, they couldn’t put in the bills on time. However, the bills were cleared immediately within no time once it came to the notice that the landline numbers were not functional and the services were temporarily withdrawn. The BSNL landline numbers of various Police Stations of Mormugao Taluka viz Vasco Railway Police Station, Mormugao, Vasco and Verna Police Stations were found non-functional.”
When contacted, police station said, “To our knowledge, there were no any such pending dues of telephone bills. The network issue and the noise filtration error prevail while communicating and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) solves the issue once we lodge the complaint.”
