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Control karo yaar: AMC loses control as telephones go dead Saturday, June 2, 2001

Ahmedabad, June 1
Monsoon is round the corner and yet almost all telephone lines of essential services are dead. Even the control rooms started by the AMC at Tagore Hall and the AMC head office are non-functional. Many phone lines at VS and L G hospital, Jamalpur, Gomtipur, Panchkuva and Naroda fire stations are dead for the past three days. All the corporators and the administrative officials in the AMC are facing trying times since Tuesday as most of the phone lines are not working.

Officials said there was a major problem with the telephone lines since one week and the engineering department was also informed but no one bothered and the phones went dead. “We informed the officer on special duty as well as the electrical department but due to their internal conflicts the phones are not repaired,” said Vasna corporator Amit Shah.

The leader of Opposition, Mr Dharmendra Shah, had to face maximum problems since he did not carry his mobile. “I wasted a lot of time trying to locate complaints from my areas,” he said. According to Deepak Bhatt, a corporator from Vasna, the entire exchange was changed and around Rs 32 lakhs was spent.

“However improper usage has lead to this problem. Since most of our staff are not used to the new system, the system fails even with little extra load,” the source said. An official on special duty, S R Shah, said “The exchange at AMC is very old. There is not a single person who deals with the complaints of instruments. Moreover, there is no one to handle the technical problems. Hence the whole system comes to a halt when the lines are dead.”

Mayor Himmatsingh Patel blamed the telephone department for the dead phones saying they did not take their complaints seriously. “We had lots of problems since phones are dead from Tuesday morning. The technical problem might be the reason for dead lines but at most of the places the reasons are unknown.”

The station fire officer at Gomtipur complained that it was very difficult for them to handle the fire calls in their area on Thursday and Friday. “We cannot rely on wireless systems always because important messages tend to get missed,” the officer added. Even at the headquarters most of the phones are dead. “The whole administration has come to a standstill,” he said.

News Source : The AsianAge Ahmedabad Edition [ The coolest Newspaper for city ]

 

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