SRIKAKULAM: As their mobile phones are not functioning properly due to lack of network coverage, the tribals in various parts of Srikakulam agency are keeping their phone where it gets signal instead of carrying it with them. Several of them use empty medical saline bottles as special bags to hang the mobile phones at the house entrance or a nearby tree or wherever the network is available. Thus, they are forced to use the mobile phone like a landline connection.
At a time when the world has become a global village with the emergence of revolutionary changes in the communication system, tribal people from various villages in Srikakulam Agency are still roaming around the hills in search of mobile phone network.
Though the Centre has set up a few cell phone towers in the Agency, it will not provide a good network to the tribal villages. Various tribal villages in Meliyaputti mandal face mobile network problems. Especially, people in Mukundapuram, Savara Mukundapuram and Guntupalli villages in Keralasingi Grama Panchayat of Meliyaputti mandal say proper mobile network still remains a distant dream for them.
They are getting mobile phone signals only in particular places due to territorial difficulties. People are keeping their mobile at the place where the network is available. They are converting the used saline bottles into a pouch to keep their mobile and hanging the saline bottle onto trees in the garden or entrance door where the network is available.
Jayamma of Mukundapuram village said, “We are not getting proper mobile signal in our village. Owing to lack of signals, we are hanging the mobile phones to trees and other spots. We are converting the used medical saline bottles as mobile pouches. The saline bottles are convenient for hanging as they have a hook. If we move from the place, the signal may drop.”
“When we want make a call, we will start our hunt for signals. Though the nation has had revolutionary changes in its communication system, there is not much difference in tribal villages. Even after 75 years of independence, we are struggling due to lack of road and mobile connectivity. I appeal to the government as well as ITDA officials to establish mobile towers in our agency.”
Many villages don’t have internet or mobile coverage
The total mobile phone users in India may have touched 116.3 crore, but of the 5.97 lakh villages in India over 25,000 villages still do not have mobile or internet connectivity. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, in the 90 districts in 11 states that have been affected by left-wing extremism, there are over 10,000 villages that do not have mobile and internet connectivity. As per the report, 1,787 villages in Andhra Pradesh have no internet and mobile coverage and 1,651 villages in the LWE affected areas do not have internet or mobile coverage.