NT Reporter
Margao
The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has announced plans to install 66 mobile towers across Goa even as people in the state continue to oppose such installations over fear of radiation from such towers.
Allaying the apprehensions, an official of DoT said radiation emanating from such mobile towers is non-ionic and not harmful to health.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday on the sidelines of the annual west zone conference on security-related matters, Director of DoT, Maharashtra and Goa, Pramod Sapkale, said, “Service providers can apply online for permission to put up towers and lay optical fibre cables. In the last two years, we have installed 67 towers and under the Digital Bharat Nidhi initiative, we have plans to install another 66 towers in Goa of which 14 have already been commissioned. We thank the Goa government for providing land for this.”
Sapkale said several studies have been conducted on mobile tower radiation, establishing that the radiation is non-ionic and not harmful unlike microwave radiation, which is much stronger.
Stating that the Sanchar Saathi portal provides for citizen-friendly measures, he said, “Once a (theft) complaint has been registered, it goes to police, who will trace the mobile phone and hand it over to the customer. One can also find how many other mobile numbers are registered on your name. So far, around 1.25 lakh mobile phones have been traced and handed over,” he said.
Additional Director General Telecom Shubha Naresh Bhambhani said being a tourist hub, Goa was prone to unsolicited foreign calls and related scams. She said this has now been substantially reduced.
