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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, NOV 8: The Government today announced waiver of telephone bills of up to Rs 1,000 in the rural areas of cyclone-affected districts in Orissa, besides several other concessions in telephone rental and call charges.
During this period, no registration fee for booking of telephones would be charged in rural areas, Union Communication Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said after a meeting to review the conditions after the cyclone, adding that calls made from public telephones in villages would be 50 per cent cheaper.
Even in the affected urban areas, rental has been waived for these two months.
The Minister also announced welfare measures to employees of Posts and Telecom Department in Orissa. An amount of Rs 3,000 would be given to the employees as assistance from the welfare fund as a one-time measure.
One month salary advance will be given, while efforts will be made through the Finance Ministry to increase this advance to three months, Paswan said.
Paswan has donated two months salary to the Cyclone Relief Fund (CRF).
Reviewing the restoration of telecom services, Paswan said that additional repair parties should be rushed immediately from nearby telecom circles like Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal to the affected areas of Orissa.
An additional telephone exchange would also be established in Cuttack, like in Bhubaneswar, to augment communication in Orissa.
Paswan also decided to prepare and execute an action plan for the coastal areas of the eastern state. The proposed programme aimed at installing WLL (Wireless in Local Loop) facility and connectivity to all exchanges by reliable transmission system to the district headquarters.
The review meeting was attended by secretaries of Department of Telecom Services and Department of Posts, Orissa Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang and the State Chief Secretary among others.
In order to expedite restoration of faults, it was decided that pagers would be provided to the line staff in the state capital.
It was further decided to permanently position satellite phones in Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Bhadrak, Jajpur and Paradip to restore communication on an emergency basis, in case of sudden failure of telecommunications due to natural calamities.
