More than 38 lakh prepaid mobile phone subscribers in J&K would be out of order come this November as the government has decided to prohibit the use of prepaid services in the state.
In the light of militants in Kashmir making use of sim cards and fake identities, no new pre-paid mobile connections would be issued nor would existing ones be renewed from November 1. "The Ministry of Home affairs has decided that no prepaid mobile connections would be issued and existing prepaid SIM cards would not be renewed in Jammu and Kashmir after November 1, 2009," an official said.
The department of telecommunications has been asked by the ministry to take appropriate action in the matter for implementation of the decision. Already many people in the state, in the areas of Doda, Kupwara and Srinagar have been arrested for providing sim cards and new cell phone connections to militants or those providing fake ids. In J&K cell phones have been widely used as triggers for bomb blasts. In the state Airtel has nearly 19 lakh subscribers followed by BSNL having 12 lakh and Aircel having seven lakh.
"The step comes in the wake of the reports that proper verification is not being done while providing such prepaid mobile connections by the service providers and vendors. In some cases, a single person had been issued with multiple number of connections," the home ministry said.
"The fake documents and identity cards are also being used by the vendors particularly, in the case of prepaid connections. This situation has given rise to serious security concerns. Hence, the decision. Intelligence agencies have been maintaining that private service providers were "overlooking security parameters to push their sales," the ministry added.
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