The recently issued guidelines by the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) regarding installation of communication (mobile) towers in the city having a provision of imposing heavy penalty on violators seem to have no impact in the city.
It can be gauged from the fact that the base transceiver station (BTS) towers are now being installed by various private telecom companies on the roadsides in many areas of the winter capital posing threat to the lives of people, especially commuters.
Under the new guidelines the telecom operators who have erected mobile phone towers without permission have been asked to apply to the JMC for regularisation, otherwise a penalty of Rs 50,000 per tower will be imposed, besides the tower will be removed.
Sources said the new norms of the JMC had no impact as the towers which were earlier confined to residential areas in the city could now be seen on the roadsides both in the city and its outskirts. One such tower was being installed in the Bahu Plaza area near a public park where children and locals came for jogging and recreational activities.
The residents had expressed concern over the installing of towers by private telecom operators on the roadsides that, too, under the nose of the JMC whose new guidelines are serving no purpose.
“Interestingly, after the issuance of new guidelines by the JMC, there has been a sudden increase in mobile towers on the roadsides. In the Gandhi Nagar area, one tower installed on the roadside is opposite the church, while another is installed in the middle of the chowk at Bahu Plaza,” said Kasturi Lal, a resident of Trikuta Nagar.
“In fact, some of the mobile towers installed on the roadsides are touching high tension electric wires. It is surprising that how the authorities are allowing telecom companies to install towers in public places posing threat to the lives,” he stated.
When contacted, RS Jamwal, Joint Commissioner (Administration), JMC, told Kashmir POST, “According to the new guidelines, every telecom operator has to seek permission from the JMC to install towers. There has been no such complaint so far. If there is any such case of installation of tower on the roadside, we will definitely look into it.”
Mobile towers on roadsides pose threat to commuters
