Centre urged not to disconnect incoming facilities for 3 months

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy has requested Union Telecom secretary Anshu Prakash to direct all telecom service providers not to disconnect incoming facilities to defaulting numbers for a period of three months in view of the lockdown to contain COVID-19.

In a letter, Tripathy informed that in view of nationwide lockdown, all commercial shops, except few grocery shops, milk booths and medicine shops, are restricted for opening.

“Consequently, people are facing difficulty to recharge their mobile phones especially those dependent on recharge vouchers. Such non-recharge, on account of lockdown, may cause a large number of mobile numbers to be disconnected,” said the Chief Secretary.

This may not only result in many people unable to contact their family/relatives/wellwishers in such a crucial phase, but also may become an impediment for the government to communicate with them for delivering essential services.