Residents irked by phone booth closure

HYDERABAD: The closure of the 12-yearold Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) telephone booth at the Charminar telephone exchange two months ago has become a cause of concern for many residents living near the Charminar.
The telephone booth, from where the residents could make international calls and use the fax facility,was located on the premises of the Charminar telephone exchange.
On an average, as many as 1,500 persons used to make international calls and send faxes from the centre. It had three separate cabins, making it convenient for women of the area to make calls in privacy. The residents trusted the telephone booth on billing as it belonged to the government.
Two months ago, all of a sudden, BSNL decided to stop operating the booth citing shortage of staff. The customers, ever since, are being forced to go to the BSNL Moazamjahi market centre to make international calls.
Azam Ali, an advocate, who lives near the exchange said, "hundreds of people used to stand in queues waiting for their turn to call. And all of a sudden, BSNL shut the facility," he said.
Another resident Zaheer Khan said that BSNL was getting good income from the booth and the closure was a surprise. "All of us had great faith in the BSNL booth as we were sure that we would not be cheated through wrong billing,'''' he said.
Divisional engineer of the Charminar telephone exchange T L Narasimham said that five persons used to operate the booth. The staff in the main telephone exchange was short and these persons now perform other duties.However, the decision to wind up the booth was taken at a higher level.