Senior citizens, doctors, chemists among 10K hit by MTNL glitches

The Sanpada post office

Dead or faulty landline and broadband connections of over 10,000 MTNL users across Mumbai and Navi Mumbai have rendered senior citizens living alone, shopkeepers, doctors' clinics, post offices and pharmacies helpless.

Worse, despite there being zero services, everyone is still paying monthly bills. While MTNL officials have admitted that services have been temporarily impacted due to the thousands of employees - 18,000 out of the 22,000 staff in Delhi and Mumbai - taking VRS, they have also blamed ongoing underground infrastructure work which damaged cables. Unless resolved quickly, the issue stands to impact the over 14 lakh landline users, 10 lakh mobile phone users and around 5 lakh broadband users in Mumbai.

Consumers' ordeal
mid-day reached out to MTNL users who have been struggling amid the chaos as their complaints go unheard.

The dead landline phone at Sanpada post office

Bandra-based businessman Sanjeev Mehta, 52, approached MTNL over his dead landline several times. He gets excuses but no solution. He recently shifted his cosmetics boutique from Khar West to Bandra West, but the landline connection hasn't.

"My house and boutique both have dead MNTL landlines. While I embraced private internet service providers, we have a different connection with the landlines and cannot part with them. Although it has been dead for four months, I was paying bills on time. However, last month I did not pay hoping that they'd repair my phone line," Mehta said.

A resident of Sahitya Sahawas, Arvind Bhanage, 68, hasn't had a working landline in seven months. "They gave the excuse of infrastructure work having damaged their cables. My landline worked only for a day sometime in between, and died again."

Sanjeev Mehta

Bhanage needs the landline as his mother, who is almost 90, is more comfortable using the landline than a mobile phone. "Also, all our relatives and friends have our landline number. It is not easy to change. I hope the government intervenes and resolves the issue of staff shortage," said Bhanage.

Borivli West resident, Suma Madhavan, 64, has been dealing with a dead landline for two months, though her MTLNL-provided internet service is still working.

Her daughter, who did not wish to be identified, said, "My elderly mother faces problem in hearing at times and is not comfortable speaking using a mobile handset for too long. Also, we have been using the landline for decades. It is not easy to replace."

Post office crippled
Employees at a post office in Sanpada, Navi Mumbai, give out their personal mobile numbers to customers. "We get a daily footfall of 150 to 200 customers and a majority of them call us to make enquires. But despite paying the bills on time and writing to MTNL, we have neither received a reply nor a solution," said Sub Postmaster, Rajendra Acharya, who gives out his mobile number to customers.

An MTNL lineman from Western suburbs admitted that he has come across many senior citizens living alone struggling without landlines.

"Decades-old cables are being used. Despite the advancement in technology and the passage of time, the department seldom invested in upgrading the quality of cables," the lineman said on condition of anonymity. With most of the staff having stopped coming to work after taking VRS, most MTNL exchanges have roped in one or two staff from other departments to man the Quick customer service.

"We have been asked to multi-task and the existing staff is made to do additional work. It is unfair, especially when you are not being paid for the past two months. We have home loans, children's education and other household expenses. Expenses have completely gone for a toss," said a woman MTNL staffer on condition of anonymity. "People from all the four categories - A (general managers), B (senior managers), C (clerks and operating staff) and D (peons and work assistants) opted for VRS. The category C and D employees are foot soldiers and they have left in the biggest numbers. The management has not figured out how the system will work without its core team," said Dilip Jadhav, Secretary, MTNL Kamgar Sangh, a Shiv Sena-run union headed by Sena leader Arvind Sawant.

"MTNL hired some of the retired staff on contract basis and over a thousand contractual staffers. We are hoping the problem will be tackled quickly," Jadhav said.

'Blame the drilling work'
Large-scale drilling of roads has damaged underground utility services and cables across the city, MTNL claims. "The BMC usually does not permit digging after May 15 as monsoon approaches. Hence, utility service providers carry out rampant drilling which damages our cables," an MTNL official said.

"On an average, detecting damaged cables and repairing them does not take more than 24 hours. But the staff crunch has made things difficult. We are trying our best to resolve issues," the officer added.

One damaged cable can affect 800 to 1,000 connections. The cables used by MTNL cost around '2,500 per metre. After adding the cost of laying it, the expenditure comes up to '3,000 per metre. "The cost of all damaged cables will be arrived at and sent to relevant utility companies to get it cleared," the official said.

The official added that if a complaint is not addressed in a week, customers are given a rebate. "We are also losing revenue as customers may switch to private companies," he said. Also, customers forwarding landline calls to mobiles will be charged 80 paise to R1.

Attempts to contact V Srisankar, Executive Director, MTNL, Mumbai did not yield any results.

14 lakh
Approximate no. of MTNL landline users in city

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