Sept. 7: The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has decided to set up five more customer service-cum-bill payment centres in the city for its CellOne subscribers.
The centres will be set up at Dispur, Ambari, Maligaon, Borjhar and Noonmati.
A senior official said the new units would become operational by the end of this month, while the newly-built Kahilipara centre will start functioning from this week.
“The new centres will be able to ease the mad rush in the two BSNL offices at Panbazar and Ulubari,” he said.
Today being the last date for payment of bills, nearly 500 people waited for hours in two serpentine queues at the Panbazar office. However, several people went home without paying their bills because of the chaotic situation.
Several people said BSNL should have opened more counters because it was the last date for payment. However, the authorities later extended the last date till tomorrow.
“We are in the queue since morning. I took the day off just to pay the bill in time but I am still not sure whether I can reach the counter before closing time,” said Biren Haloi, a bank employee.
The company puts the blame on customers saying that many wait till the last day to make payments.
“It is none of their business when I choose to pay as long as I am paying,” said a customer. “They can’t blame us for their inefficiency and callousness,” he said.
Many of the subscribers have complained that BSNL has been charging discriminatorily, especially on CellOne bills.
They said the charges for SMS service is more than the stipulated rate.
BSNL, which launched its CellOne mobile service in the city in February by providing 7,700 connections in the first phase, had brought cheer to mobile phone subscribers who were fed up with the whimsical ways of Reliance.
Before BSNL, Reliance Telecom was the only mobile service provider in the city. But people have started complaining that the BSNL CellOne service has finally dashed the hopes of customers.
“Now BSNL mobile phone service is becoming worse than Reliance. The BSNL staff has less accountability than Reliance Telecom,” said Purnima Baruah, a college student who only recently switched loyalties. “I’ll probably go back to Reliance,” she said.
