Pre-Paid sims, still a security threat in J&K

Nitesh Sangral	2/21/2011 9:25:28 PM
JAMMU, Feb 21: Despite repeated warnings to the telecom companies and given the directions by the Union Home Ministry to revivified the customer’s documents so that anti- national elements could not misuse of pre- paid SIM cards, telecom companies are still not following the norms. It is pertinent to mention here that in January, 2010, the government had lifted a ban on the use of pre-paid mobile connections in Jammu and Kashmir for one year and had notified strict criteria for re-verification of subscriber’s documents. In the fresh guidelines, it was stated that though no customer shall be given more than one pre-paid or post-paid connection, if an individual needs to second connections, he will have to give reasons. According to report, nearly 40 lakh pre-paid mobile customers in Jammu and Kashmir State and they may lose their connectivity if the process of re-verifying their identities is not completed by March 31 2011. In recently statement, government extended the validity of its permission for the use of pre-paid SIM cards in these states only till March 31otherwise the subscribers lose the connections. It is also established the police was given the task to go for random check of subscribers to ascertain whether the SIM is used by a genuine person or is in the hands of subversive elements. The new mobile connections will be issued only against documents having photographs of the customers and at the end of every month; a list of fresh connections would be submitted to state police. Locals said that we have submitted our identities two time after revoked the ban on pre- paid connections and last month also submitted their documents but the telecom companies is not care people documents. They further said the some officials of the companies and retailers their personal benefits to sell the SIM cards without document. They also said that the government not taking step against these people who black the SIM cards in the markets with fake documents due to this common masses will face a lot of problems.