Guwahati, Oct. 31 :     Nagaland?s first private telephone exchange appears to be jinxed, with the telecom department yet to provide the ?incoming junctions? necessary for it to function. ?The seven-month delay by the telecom authorities has deprived as many as 200 customers of telephone connections,? said Mirza Pasha, advisor to the Dimapur-based Uniglobe Enterprises, which has set up the exchange. Pasha said the telecom department had already been paid Rs 65,120 for the ?junctions? and a license fee of Rs 10,000. The payments were made in March. ?As per rules, it is mandatory for the department to provide the junctions immediately after the relevant payments have been made, but it has done nothing in this regard so far. Even the cables have not been laid,? Pasha said. Once it becomes functional, the Dimapur-based exchange will be the first private telephone exchange in the Northeast outside of Guwahati. Assam?s capital city already has three such exchanges. One of these, Assam Futuristic Communications, is run by Pasha. ?We wanted separate lines for incoming and outgoing calls. But for reasons best known to them, the telecom authorities in Dimapur said they could not give us the incoming junctions,? Pasha said. ?We have made a huge investment of Rs 13 lakh, but are yet to start functioning. We hoped to provide Internet connections once the exchange became operational. We also planned to provide connections to public call offices in Dimapur to enable unemployed local youth to earn a living. Everything is on hold because of the telecom authorities. We are also incurring huge losses,? Pasha said. S.A.Vishwanathan, chief general manager of the telecom department?s northeastern circle, pleaded ?ignorance? about the problem. ?This has not been brought to my notice at all. I will surely look into the matter and take necessary steps,?? he said.