Net, phone network of police stations disrupted for hours

LUCKNOW: Work in police stations and offices in several districts across the state was disrupted for hours on Saturday as the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) snapped the Internet services and phone connectivity due to pending payment of around ₹80 lakh for the past seven months.

Additional director general (ADG), technical services, state police, Asim Arun said the services were affected for a few hours in eight districts of the state but were later restored. He said the bill payment had been initiated and would be cleared from the government treasury soon.

He said the BSNL bills were cleared in every three months but this time payment was delayed due to some reasons as well as strike of employees in the government treasury.

The complaints of Internet disruption started coming from police stations and offices of different districts, including Lucknow, since Saturday morning after which top police officials checked the matter with the BSNL authorities.

In Lucknow, the Internet service and phone connectivity of the office of the senior superintendent of police and over a dozen police stations remained disrupted for several hours.

A senior BSNL official confirmed the services were disrupted due to pending payment of the police department. He said the BSNL was already going through financial crisis following which salaries of employees were delayed. The services were disrupted to put pressure on different departments to clear the pending dues, he said.