In a bid to reduce consumer bills, 10 Maharashtra MPs have submitted a representation to Union Telecom Minister Ravishankar Prasad, asking for the merger of Mumbai and Maharashtra circles.
"Presently, Mumbai and Maharashtra are treated as two different circles. Users of Mumbai have to pay national roaming charges while travelling within Maharashtra and similarly users of Maharashtra using mobile in Mumbai have to pay national roaming charges," the MPs in their letter to the Telecom minister stated.
"In whole over India, including Kolkata-West Bengal, Chennai-Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad-Andhra Pradesh, etc. All states are treated as a single circle (state). Only in Maharashtra, Mumbai and Maharashtra are treated as two different circles and users have to pay the national roaming charges while travelling/talking in Mumbai and vice-versa," they argued.
They further said the Telecom companies are generating "additional revenue/ double revenue" from consumers by keeping Mumbai and Maharashtra two separate circles.
"The Ministry/Industry/TRAI was supposed to make whole of India as one circle but for various reasons the execution of 'One India' is delayed," the letter read.
The delegation of BJP and Shiv Sena MPs, was led by Kirit Somaiya and Gopal Shetty, and included Nana Patole, Chintaman Wanga, Ravindra Gaikwad, Shrirang Barne, Sanjay Dhotre, Vinayak Raut, Kapil Patil and Sadashiv Lokhande.
According to an MP, if their request is accepted, consumer bills will reduce by Rs 80 to Rs 200 depending on number of inter-circle calls.
Looking to address the issue of arbitrary rates imposed
by various government bodies, the DoT proposes that payments sought by the authorities should be calculated on the basis of applicable schedule of rates for works of similar nature executed by it from time to time.
"States and other related ministries will submit their comments by April 20 after which the final policy will go for the approval of the Telecom Minister. Once this policy will be in place, states will have to follow it uniformly across country," the official said.
Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) Director General T R Dua said the DoT had formulated a mobile tower policy in 2013 but all the states did not align their rules with that policy.
"If the RoW rules are finalised, this will go a long way in expediting government's Digital India mission, smart city project and other transformational programmes as everything is linked to connectivity. Infrastructure service providers are best placed to work under this policy," Dua said.
