NT´s Surkhet branch said more than 400 phone lines installed in Surkhet, Dailekh, Jumla and Kalikot have gone kaput. But so far none of these phones have been fixed, as the office does not have the software to repair those phones. This goes directly against the pact reached with customers, in which NT had agreed to shoulder the responsibility of fixing the phone sets, in case they stopped functioning.
“I had filed an application to repair my phone set six months ago. But my request has not been heard till date,” Dipendra Khatri of Mehankula, Surkhet, told myrepublica.com. After NT failed to fix his phone, Khatri even decided to purchase a new set. But the telecom company does not even have new sets in stock. “This is causing too much inconvenience,” he complained.
In this remote mid-west, CDMA phones are the only means of communication. But because of NT´s negligence, many people who want to contact their loved ones abroad have not been able to do so.
Urmila Dhakal of Garpan was one among many of those victims, who had to return home without being able to call her husband who works in a foreign land. “I made a worthless effort by walking quite a distance just to return home without being able to talk to my spouse,” she complained.
Purna Chandra Sapkota, chief of NT´s Surkhet branch, said: “I have formally requested the central office to address this problem many times. But I have not received any response so far.”
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