Jamshedpur, July 23: Theft of telephone cables coupled with road repair work have taken a toll on telephone connectivity in the steel city, especially in Mango and Adityapur areas.

The problem has reached such proportions that even the deputy superintendent of police (police control room) has complained of telephones lying dead for two months at Mango police station.

Over 10,000 telephones belonging to BSNL in Mango and Adityapur areas were lying defunct for the past two months.

This has created huge problems for the consumers as well as for BSNL officials.

The consumers have lodged complaints with the BSNL authorities only to be told that the line would be restored after the technical defect is repaired.

“We have lodged as many as 12 FIRs with Olidih, MGM and Adityapur police stations against cable theft but the police have so far been not able to detect a single case of cable theft,” said a senior official in the BSNL here.

Sources in BSNL said at most places the cables are laid underground, but there are places where the cables have to be taken above the ground.

“After receiving complaints from consumers, we visited the places and found that the telephone cables had been cut. We mended them but again after some days we found that thieves had cut the cables at the same place. We lodged complaints with the police but nothing happ- ened. Under such circumstances, what can we do?” said the official.

He pointed out that a substantial portion of the telephone cables are made of copper and the thieves tend to cut the cable to extract copper from it and sell them at scrap-iron depots.

“If any portion of the cable is cut, thousands of consumers suffer as telephone lines turn dead,” he said.

Another factor that is adding to this problem is road repair work.

Thieves take advantage when repair work is on and underground cables lie exposed. When the Adityapur-Kandra Road was repaired four years ago, the underground cables leading to Adityapur were stolen. BSNL had to lay fresh cables at many places and the telephone numbers had to be changed.

At present, road widening and repair is on at Mango. As a result, BSNL customers of the areas are suffering the most.

“For two months our telephones lines have been lying dead. Even the phone at the STD booth is not working. If we have to make a call, we have to travel to Sakchi where the telephones at booths are working,” said Prem Kumar Prasad, a resident of Jawahar Nagar, Mango.

Road repair work is essential and the administration cannot do anything to avoid it but police said they would look into the matter of cable theft.

General manager of BSNL, Jamshedpur, R.K. Mishra said: “I have to meet East Singhbhum superintendent of police Naveen Kumar Singh soon and lodge a complaint to bring an end to the menace of cable thefts that is becoming rampant in the steel city, especially in Mango.”

Deputy superintendent of police (police control room) Dinesh Oraon admitted that they have received complaints of cable theft from a number of places. He said that the phone at Mango police station has also been lying dead for the past two months and investigations are going on.

Oraon promised that he would initiate steps to check the cable theft soon.

“We would soon conduct raids at scrap-iron depots. The thieves sell the stolen cables at the scrap-iron depots only,” said Oraon.

He added that he would engage some special officers in this case. They would be solely responsible for cracking the telephone cable theft.