Tuesday witnessed a lot of commotion over the Reliance Jio 4 G towers. This was over two issues – one about caution board signs on these towers in Margao warning about non-ionised radiation and one over permissions granted for the erection of mobile towers at the Margao police station.
On Tuesday, residents from in and around Margao were perturbed to see these caution boards asking the public not to touch or come near the tower and questions were asked about how safe these towers are given that they are erected in close vicinity to residential areas and public places.
United Goans Foundation secretary, Avinash Tavares further questioned the permissions that are required to be taken and how the radiation levels are tested if any such tests are done.
When Herald spoke to Goa State Pollution Control Board chairman, Jose Manuel Noronha, he said that currently they have outsourced the testing to an approved agency in Bombay that measures the power of density, the radiation and frequency of the operator. He however, added that with the applications for the number of towers rising in Goa recently, the government had decided to get their own equipment which is in the final stage of procurement.
“We had issued notices to Reliance since they had not obtained the mandatory consent to operate from the board to commence transmitting from the towers. They have now applied for the consent and our engineers are in the process of inspecting the locations of each tower to ascertain whether they meet prescribed guidelines. If they meet the conditions laid down by the DST, we will issue the consent. This is again subject to the local body issuing the NOC,” said Noronha. “As far as the signage is concerned, I am not aware of the contents but all towers in operation should transmit within the permissible radiation limit of 0.900 watts/M2. We have carried out random checks in the past on this account and will continue in the future too. In case it exceeds, we are bound to withdraw the consent granted,” added Noronha.
Telecom company officials, when contacted however, downplayed the fears about radiation and categorically stated that this was as per the mandatory procedure laid down by the central government that includes the size of the caution boards.
