SRINAGAR: At least 8,000 BSNL mobile connections, mostly belonging to government and police officials, are working in Kashmir while the State-run BSNL has issued about 4,000-5,000 new landline connections in Valley.
It is allotting new post-paid SIM cards only to government employees.
“We have a total subscriber base of 4.75 lakh in the Valley. Of them 8,000 post-paid mobile phones are working,” a BSNL official said.
The mobile phones working belong to government and police officials besides BSNL officials.
The official added that the mobile phones are being restored from Jammu headquarters of BSNL only after “clearance” from IGP Kashmir and “Kashmir office has no role in the restoration of the mobile connections”.
The official said BSNL mobile phones are not working in Handwara and Kupwara as is being claimed by the government.
According to another official, the Kashmir division has a total 88 lakh mobile subscribers.
The BSNL official said since September 1, the telecom company has been issuing new post-paid mobile SIMs to the government employees only.
“We are not issuing new SIM cards to any civilian right now,” he said.
The BSNL official said the telecom company is mulling to offer fee-waiver to post-paid subscribers in the Kashmir Valley for the time the services remain suspended.