Ashu Kumar
Jammu Tawi, October 24: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the government-owned telecom service provider, has once again come under public ire and scrutiny after its Internet and Fibre services in the City’s business hub, Residency Road and Raghunath Bazar extended area remained disrupted for over a week now.
Frustrated customers, after repeated complaints to the BSNL helpline and local office yielded no results, were forced to seek the help of the media to make their voices heard.
Speaking to The Northlines, several residents, business offices and shops, expressed anger over the lack of accountability and poor response from BSNL staff. “We have registered complaints multiple times, but every time we are told that the issue will be fixed soon. It’s been seven days now, and still, nothing has been done,” said one resident.
When The Northlines correspondent reached out to BSNL officials for clarification, the officials blamed the Jammu Smart City project for the technical disruption. According to a BSNL official, “The Smart City Department’s digging and on-going civil works have damaged our Fibre cables at several locations, which are causing frequent outages. We face this issue repeatedly, and it’s beyond our control.”
However, when the correspondent contacted the Smart City Department, their senior officials completely rejected BSNL’s allegations. A top officer clarified, “We have not carried out any work in that area for the past fifteen months. None of our projects are currently active there. The claim that our work caused the fibre cuts is completely baseless.”
The official further alleged that BSNL often shifts blame to other departments instead of fixing its internal problems. “This has become a pattern — whenever there’s a service issue, they point fingers at others,” he added.
The on-going blame game between BSNL and the Smart City Department has left residents in a lurch, questioning the reliability of BSNL’s network in an era where Digital India is the government’s flagship initiative.
Many customers have reportedly started disconnecting their BSNL connections and are compelled to explore the shifting to private service providers citing frequent breakdowns and delayed maintenance response.
“Government talks about promoting Digital India, but BSNL, the Govt of India’s own entity, the service quality is going backward instead of improving,” said another frustrated user.
As the outage continues, the episode once again highlights the widening gap between the government’s digital vision and the on-ground reality of BSNL’s failing infrastructure and mismanagement.
If the situation persists, public trust in BSNL’s ability to deliver reliable digital connectivity may continue to erode — an alarming sign for India’s goal of a connected, technology-driven future.
