With more and more panchayats voicing their resentment over the installation of new towers, and Dramapur panchayat even resolving to raze the existing ‘illegally installed’ tower, the government has initiated discussions on drafting a comprehensive tower policy for the State.
Sources said that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, IT Minister Rohan Khaunte and bureaucrats concerned have held marathon meetings to commence the process for preparing guidelines and modalities. It is learnt that issues such as call drops, network outage and connectivity gaps; charges for setting up mobile towers, etc will also be addressed through the proposed policy.
“It is pre-mature to speak anything at this stage because the government has just begun discussing on preparing guidelines and rules for framing the policy. It is still at an initial stage… As per tentative plan, the policy will define the tower and types of towers among other issues linked to the subject. Everything will be streamlined,” said a source close to the government.
It has been proposed to hold awareness camps, and the government too, through will try to address public grievances. One of the parameters of the policy will be seeking clarity of thought from all quarters besides ensuring that mobile operators meet the compliance requirements in the wake of allegations that certain crucial facts by them are not revealed. “We will ensure the operators adhere to the proposed guidelines,” said the source.
At the backdrop of objections over setting up the mobile towers at multiple locations, particularly in South Goa, sources disclosed that government could take opinions and suggestions from the general public, stakeholders including civil society groups at the time of drafting the policy.
Most importantly, the policy will propose doing away with multiple agencies for seeking permission to install mobile towers and introduce single window system. So also, site inspection considering there are issues over proper locations and how the project would generate revenue for the State other than providing service would be covered into the policy.
Khaunte supported the fact that the issue of tower and connectivity needs improvement. “The tower and connectivity needs to be improvised as we go ahead with technology-related ways to ease the way doing business. Hence, we need a tower policy,” he said when contacted by Herald for a comment on the proposed policy.
