Question : NON-PAYMENT OF BILLS

(a) whether the telephones used by Jawans posted as Siachen Glacier have been disconnected by the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited on account of non-payment of bills by the concerned authorities;

(b) if so, since when these phones have been cut off;

(c) whether keeping in view the difficulty being experienced by Jawans the Government propose to restore the STD connections at the earliest and resolve the payment issue afterwards; and

(d) the time by which the telephones are likely to become operational?

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS (SHRI TAPAN SIKDAR)

(a) None of the STD-PCO telephone facilities provided for the troops in Siachen area has been disconnected. However, three telephones installed under the `Own Your Telephone`(OYT) Category, working for the Army at Partapur were disconnected on account of non-payment of bills.

(b) Date of disconnection of the three telephones is 26.06.2001.

(c) & (d): Adequate telephone facilities are available for the troops in Siachen. Five STD/ISD-PCOs have been provided to them at Partapur, the base camp of Siachen, besides one STD/ISD-PCO working on Inmarsat terminal in Siachen. The army has since paid the outstanding dues for the disconnected telephones as at (a) above on 09.11.20001 and also requested that these telephones be restored only after confirmation by them, which is still awaited.