ALL PREPAID PHONES BACK

JAMMU: Voice calls and short messaging service (SMS) facilities, which were suspended in August last year before the nullification of Article 370, will be restored for prepaid mobile connection users in Jammu and Kashmir, the government said.

JAMMU: Voice calls and short messaging service (SMS) facilities, which were suspended in August last year before the nullification of Article 370, will be restored for prepaid mobile connection users in Jammu and Kashmir, the government said on Saturday. The Central government had enforced a complete communication clampdown in the region a day before it withdrew the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and divided it into two Union territories of and Kashmir and Ladakh on August 5.

The Centre has gradually restored phone lines, but internet services and prepaid mobile services remained suspended. While landlines were restored between mid-August and September, postpaid mobile services were back on October 14.

Mobile internet services were restored in Kargil, a part of the Union territory of Ladakh, in the last week of December. SMSs on all cellphones and broadband internet services were restored in government-run hospitals from January 1. “Barely four days ago, I had spoken and briefed in detail about enhancements in access and communication facilities and further facilitation being provided in Kashmir and Jammu divisions,” principal secretary Rohit Kansal said at a press conference.

“It was also clarified that the overall effort shall be to facilitate and keep restrictions to the bare minimum based on the ground situation,” he added. “Consistent with this philosophy and after a careful review, the competent authority ordered today that voice and SMS facility shall be restored on all local pre-paid SIM cards across the Union territory of J&K,” he said.

The latest decision of the government comes a week after the SC ordered the J-K administration to review internet curbs and said access to the internet was a fundamental right. “Such suspension can only be for a limited time period and is subject to judicial review,” the bench of justices NV Ramana, R Subhash Reddy and BR Gavai had said. The top court had given a week’s time to review the curbs.