The Hindu : New Delhi News : Inside Delhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 14, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Inside Delhi

Unprofessional MTNL

Though it is facing a stiff competition from private players, the public sector Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) continues to tackle things in its own unprofessional way.

While private cellular phone operators have been taking every possible step to satisfy their valuable subscribers, this does not seem to be the case with MTNL that offers Trump and Dolphin mobile services to residents of Delhi and Mumbai.

Take the case of a Dolphin subscriber whose phone was disconnected recently as he could not deposit the monthly bill because he had gone abroad. Soon after his return, he promptly deposited his mobile bill.

Even a week later, his phone has not been activated forcing the subscriber to move to a private player. "Why should I stick to this unprofessional MTNL," he asked.

A Dolphin subscriber for more than four years who never defaulted on his payments, he was asked by an executive of the MTNL call centre to fax him a statement from the bank, stating that money had been withdrawn in favour of MTNL.

"Which bank would give you such a statement? Even if they do, who has the time to run around the bank, get the desired statement and then fax it to MTNL call centre," he asked.

According to the subscriber, MTNL took six days to send the cheque to the bank for clearance. "When the fault is on their part, why should the subscriber suffer," he asked.

At a time when there are stiff penalties for bouncing of cheques, one wonders why MTNL waits for the cheque to be cleared before activating the cell phone. "That is how our computerised system works," a senior MTNL official said.

Man with a mission

He is a man with a mission. Fiftyfour-year-old Kanwal Nain Singh wants to create awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco and has in the past four months interacted with a large number of people in Nasik, Ahmedabad, Karnal, Chandigarh and Ludhiana. He conducts seminars in school and universities and even carries forward his campaign while travelling in trains.

"I hold meetings with students and grown-ups on the harmful effects of smoking cigarettes and bidis, chewing of tobacco and consumption of alcohol. I also carry big posters showing people suffering from various types of cancer. In fact, I donate 10 per cent of my income to this cause," said Mr. Singh during a stopover in Delhi this past week.

Though he is employed with the Food Corporation of India at Pipli, he still finds time to campaign. "Money is of secondary importance to me. Saving precious lives, especially of poor people like rickshaw-pullers and labourers, is more important. Once afflicted with cancer, they can neither go to work nor afford the expensive treatment. What will their wives and children do," asked Mr. Singh, who also distributes literature compiled by the World Health Organisation.

Rattling off alarming statistics, Mr. Singh adds: "Tobacco consumption kills 40 lakh people worldwide every year, of which Indians number 8 lakhs. It is a burning issue that cannot be swept under the carpet. The Government should make stringent laws as this malaise is not only resulting in deaths of our countrymen, but also causing wastage of crores of rupees."

Reviving

eco-system

This past week, Tata house, a residential complex located at 23 Prithviraj Road in New Delhi, had some unwelcome visitors for several nights - fox-like animals with a long tail. Surprised and anxious, the residents sent out an emergency call to Wildlife S.O.S, a Delhi-based non-government organisation running a wildlife rescue unit.

The rescue team of Wildlife S.O.S trapped the animals and identified them as young palm civets. And while the group found several civets living on the premises, the people there wanted these harmless animals relocated. That is where the problem began.

Says the chairman of the rescue centre, Kartick Satyanarayan: "Civets are harmless nocturnal animals that have adapted themselves to live in a growing city like Delhi. These animals are very valuable as they eat rodents and keep the rat population under control, thereby playing the role of natural predators. The public must learn to co-exist with urban wildlife that has been here before Delhi city came into being. Civets have adapted very well to the urban Delhi by scavenging from the dustbins after dark and eating rodents and small birds. The presence of civets clearly is an indicator that nature is indeed fighting and doing its best to revive the dying eco-system of Delhi. And we must all support the existence of urban wildlife and learn to co-exist, a message that does not seem to be going down well with the residents here.''

By Lalit K. Jha,

Madhur Tankha and

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

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