New Delhi: Fearing attacks by Naxalites and harassment by police, nearly 3,060 villages across India have refused telephone connections, a news report said Tuesday.
The villagers feel that if they have telephones, the Naxals will suspect them of collaborating with police and police will suspect them of having sympathy for the Naxals if they fail to pass on information about them.
Refusing to be caught in between, 3,059 villages across seven states have turned down telephone links.
"Our field staff say that many villages in the insurgency-hit areas are very keen to take telephone connections," one of the directors of BSNL, J R Gupta was quoted as saying.
The Naxalites are mainly active in seven states - Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa and Chattisgarh.
Another reason for refusing service could be that telephone switchboards were increasingly becoming the target of Naxal attacks.
At least 270 telephone exchanges have been attacked over the past few years, the daily said.
The villages turning down telephone exchanges will also hit the Indian government's plans to provide telephone connectivity in the country's more than 600,000 villages by the end of 2007.
Naxals, who claim to be inspired by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, have been fighting government forces to defend the rights of poor farmers and landless workers.
They often attack police stations and other Government offices.
Comments
0 comment