Mysuru: The Mysuru City Corporation, as per orders of the state government has now disconnected the mobile phones that were provided to 65 corporators and officials of the corporation.
As per sources, the bills of these mobile phones used to run into lakhs of rupees. However, the disconnection of the phone has put general public and officials of the corporation to great inconvenience.
Based on directions from the state government, Mysuru City Corporation Commissioner Jagadeesh, on April 27, 2017 had written letter to the BSNL to discontinue the service, following which most of the phones were disconnected on Sunday.
The mobile phone service extended to the corporators had helped the general public in reaching their area corporator easily because, the last two digits of the number allotted to each corporator was based on their ward number. Similar numbers were given to the officials as well. But with the MCC having to take burden of an additional Rs seven to eight lakhs per month on an average, the service was discontinued.
The move has not gone down well with many in the MCC. An official on conditions of anonymity said that instead of disconnecting the mobiles, the MCC could have had given a slot for recharge.
Jagadeesh, Commissioner, MCC said, “On April 27 we received letter from government that all mobile connection given by corporation to its corporators and officials should be withdrawn immediately. If there is any delay in disconnecting the mobile numbers, the mobile bill for number of days delayed should be borne by the Commissioner himself. Hence soon after receiving the letter, we wrote a letter to the BSNL stating them to disconnect all the mobile connection given to corporators and corporation officials immediately. The facility was given without the consent of state government and the government also mentioned that its additional burden on the government”.
He said that he is in talks with private agencies for similar service where the offer for unlimited talk time could be availed. “On receiving a proposal from the service provider, the same will be forwarded to the government for approval, he said.
