A BSNL mobile phone tower in Balurghat. Picture by Ramen Mondal

Balurghat, July 7: BSNL mobile phone users in South and North Dinajpurs are facing rampant cross-connections while communicating with others. This is not only threatening the privacy of callers, but creating holes in their pockets as well.

“The privacy of using mobile phones is being completely violated for the past few days. Whenever you dial a number, it is connecting to a different phone whose user is conversing with another person,” said Gour Ranjan Banerjee, the secretary of the South Dinajpur Chamber of Commerce.

Banerjee said the telecom company was deducting money for these cross calls without paying any heed to the harassment being caused to the subscribers. “Complaints to the BSNL’s customer care have proved fruitless,” he added.

Dilip Mohanta, a development officer with the LIC, said: “I have been told by an agent that he was sure that someone was listening to what he was talking to his client over the phone regarding a policy amount. If some criminals really eavesdrop, there might be an unpleasant event.”

The subdivisional telecom officer of the BSNL in Balurghat, Somenath Ghosh admitted that there is a problem. “But I cannot comment any further,” he said.

BSNL sources said there was a technical hitch in its Raiganj hub which controls the telecom services for both the districts. The services are being run in a slipshod manner. Engineers and technicians were being called from Siliguri and Calcutta to look into the problem, they said.

“The entire network in both the districts will be switched off after midnight tonight to repair the system,” an official said.