PAN, photos for new cell phone connections

NEW DELHI, Oct 23: Cell phone users may soon have to give a string of identification papers if they want new cell phone connections. The ...

NEW DELHI, Oct 23: Cell phone users may soon have to give a string of identification papers if they want new cell phone connections. The list of documents subscribers may have to produce will include (some or all of these) submission of Permanent Account Number (PAN) or General Index Register (GIR) number relating to all their Income-Tax transactions, passport number, ration card copies, photo credit cards, copies of passport size photographs of subscribers. What is likely to affect most subscribers is that even pre-paid card subscribers may have to furnish these details before cell phone connections can be given to them.

Following directions from the Home Ministry, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has written to all cellular operators to comply with these norms with immediate effect or face punitive action which in the extreme case may lead to cancellation of the licence for an operator. The threat, in the first phase, has been meted out to eight operators, two each in the four metros.

Thegovernment had earlier asked the cellular operators to provide tapping facilities in the offices of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) by providing 30 lines to each of these investigative agencies. The issue is still hanging fire as the cell operators have asked the government to share the cost of setting up all this equipment which runs into Rs 15 to 20 crore. This, operators say, the government is unwilling to do.

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Sources in the Home Ministry say that there is pressure from the Mumbai Police as cell phones are being widely used by the underworld in the gang wars which threaten to destroy the peace of the city from time to time.

Cellular operators on the other hand are seeking legal opinion and are planning to drag the government to court on the continuous harassment caused by the government on account of the “securityconsiderations”.

The operators have approached the government saying that it is not feasible for them to check the antecedents of all subscribers with this detail especially in the case of prepaid cards. According to operators, nearly 50 per cent of their new business comes through the sale of prepaid cards. This is good business for the operators as there is no risk of bad debts as payments are made before the cell phone service is used. It has also clicked with consumers as it is a successful “budget watcher”.

Further, operators say, this will only generate secondary sale of pre-paid cards as people will find a way to beat the system. A genuine subscriber may be given a premium on his pre-paid card by law-breakers as he will be the one to fill in forms and go through the hassle of getting connections which he could sell again to somebody without the operator being anywhere in the picture.

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“We appreciate the security concerns of the government and are willing to cooperate to the extent practicallypossible, but we will have to stop short of behaving an investigative agency working for the government at our cost”, says an anguished operator.

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said the designation gives law enforcement “enhanced powers to combat a group that has instilled fear through violence and intimidation”.

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