Government bans pre-paid services in Jammu & Kashmir
According to India’s Economic Times, pre-paid mobile services are to be blocked in the Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) circle from 1 November. The moves comes on the back of government concerns that such services have been used for criminal and terrorist activities, with the state making the decision after it felt that sample checks on subscriber verification by the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) were ineffective. Justifying the decision, a statement from the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) claimed that both service providers and vendors were failing to carry out the correct verification procedures, noting: ‘In some cases, a single person had been issued multiple numbers of connections. The fake documents/identity numbers are also reportedly being used by the vendors particularly, in the case of pre-paid connections.’ It is believed that the government may consider implementing similar bans in other north-east states, as concerns grow about insurgent activity in those areas.
source: www.telegeography.com
