A dug-up road in Ashok Nagar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, July 30: Telephone and Internet services have been down in Ashok Nagar for the past two months. Local residents say the problem persists despite their repeated complaints to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

The BSNL authorities blamed the situation on the damage caused to the underground cables when the Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO) had laid water pipelines. The service provider said they were trying their best to restore service, but it would take some time.

“Telephones in our area started malfunctioning and went out of order about two months ago,” said Jyotsna Rani Das, 78, a resident of the area. The situation has been troubling a lot of people, especially those like the elderly Das, who stays alone at home during the day. Neither can she speak to people over the phone, nor can her family members call to check on her during the day.

Ronak Samant, an engineering student in Ashok Nagar, said: “Staying away from the Internet is difficult. I download many things for my projects from the Internet.

The residents said BSNL officials initially refused to listen to their complaints, but when calls from their area kept coming to the local office, they sent teams to check the problem. The teams found that telephone cables had been cut off at various places and the severed parts were missing.

“We were told that after the cables were dug out, rag pickers and scrap collectors from the nearby slums cut off the cables and took them away. They told us that the repairs would take time,” said Raj Kumar Mohanty, executive member of the Ashok Nagar Citizens’ Association.

A.K. Nayak, the sub-divisional officer, telephones-VI of BSNL, who is in charge of Ashok Nagar, said: “We have to procure long cables for those areas where they have gone missing. The cables will be available to us very soon we and we will restore the services within a few days.”

However, he alleged that agencies digging the roads did not inform them about the damage to cables.

However, PHEO superintending engineer Chitta Ranjan Jena said that whenever they conducted any digging, they informed the agencies concerned, including BSNL, as underground cables would be affected.

“We inform them before digging up the roads,” he said.