'B'desh signals in north-east border areas'

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd authorities in the north-east have drawn the Centre's attention to their inability in restricting Bangladesh telephone services in some bordering areas of the region.

"We cannot restrict Bangladesh signals that are coming to certain bordering areas of the north-east," A K Gupta, chief general manager of BSNL's north-east telecom circle -- comprising Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura, said on Monday.

At present, the Union Home Ministry prohibits any radio signals for mobile phone services within 10 km of bordering areas of Bangladesh, except Agartala.

As a result of which, no cellular service is available in any border town of the north-east.

No cellular service could be provided in areas like Dawki, a land customs station in Meghalaya or Baghmara, South Garo Hills district town and many other towns in the north-east as no step for setting up Base Telecom Stations of mobile telephony could be taken up in these areas, resulting in loss of revenue for the state-owned telecom company, he said.

"Some Bangladesh telephone network was taking advantage of this situation and some anti-social elements were also making use of it," Gupta alleged.

Many people were using the 'grameen telephone' network to communicate among themselves, he said.