Residents of Shekhanandeh still deprived from Telephone Facility

CHITRAL:   A digital telephone exchange already has been established at Bumborate village of Kalash valley for providing phone facility to inhabitants of entire valley. A underground cable also have  carried from this PTCL Exchange to Shekhanandeh some 7 kilometers away from here but the line was damaged last year by bulldozer blade when the contractor was removing snow from the road to open it for vehicular traffic. As a result telephone cable was also broken and the entire area of Shekhanandeh was deprived from telephone facility. The matter was also brought into the notice of General Manager Northern Telecommunication Region (NTR) Muhammad Khalid who also approved new cable and other equipments for this area to restore phone line but work still not started on the same. As a result more than 130 registered consumers facing great difficulties due to no communication network nor any other cellular (mobile) service is available in the area except PTCL but it also out of order. These people suffering great troubles and face to travel for hours by feet  to Bumborate telephone Exchange for a phone call to inform their relatives in case of any emergency (death etc). Haji Muhammad Yousuf Chairman Parents Teachers Council and Chairman Abdul Majeed Qureshi former UC Nazim have appeal high ups of Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Limited (PTCL) for early repair and restore of this damaged PTCL line so as to solve their communication problem. It is worth to mention here that Shekhanandeh is situated near Pak Afghan border area of Nooristan where Afghan Taliban exercising infiltration and they also had kidnapped a Greek volunteer last year but the local people could not informed the security forces timely due to no telephone facility in the area.