Maharashtra may face connectivity issues if lockdown is imposed

People in Maharashtra may face issues in telecom connectivity if a lockdown is imposed in the state on account of infrastructure firms going through inconvenience from native authorities in rolling out and sustaining networks, business physique TAIPA stated on Thursday.

Maharashtra has seen a sudden spike in COVID-19 instances and there have been 31,855 contemporary instances recorded in the state on Thursday, as per knowledge accessible on the Aarogya Setu app.

Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) has alleged that numerous native authorities and municipal companies will not be able to acknowledge and settle for the telecom infrastructure coverage dated February 17, 2018, duly notified by the state authorities in August 2018.

“The situation is very alarming as the infrastructure providers continue to face coercive threats from one municipal corporation or the other each day,” TAIPA Director General T R Dua stated.

The physique, whose members embrace firms like Indus Towers, American Tower Corporation and

Sterlite Technologies, stated the native authorities of the state are nonetheless insisting on following their very own insurance policies, circulars and resolutions.

This has led to a scenario whereby the infrastructure suppliers are continuously dwelling underneath risk of coercive motion of disconnection and demolition or sealing of the websites, it stated.

“We are afraid, it is going to hurt not only the investor’s sentiment but also make the common public life difficult in absence of sound telecom infrastructure which is fundamental to digital services like work from home, remote meeting, e-education etc besides meeting the basic needs of voice and data services,” Dua stated.

TAIPA stated non-implementation of the coverage has led to a number of insurance policies, guidelines and bye legal guidelines.

“Nagpur, Bhivandi Nizampur, Pimpri Chinchwad, MCGM, Mira Bhayender, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Kalyan Dombivali have come up with their own circulars and resolutions etc. Concerns are exorbitant fees up to Rs 2 Lakh per tower for regularization and stringent documentation,” TAIPA stated.

The business physique stated even the 2018 coverage of the state has not addressed clauses round regularisation and validity of present towers.

“This non approval of existing towers leads to coercive action. Property tax is very high and on top of it, Shasti penalty is levied for non-regularised towers by considering them as unauthorised by MCs such as MCGM, Aurangabad, Vasai Virar and MBMC,” it stated.

According to the business physique, telecom infrastructure firms are going through coercive actions which are rampant on account of non-regularisation, public issues and Shasti fee regardless of the interim keep on fee of Shasti by Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court.

It stated the telecom towers shouldn’t be thought of as unauthorised for levying Shasti as members of the business physique have made functions for no-objection certificates which haven’t been rejected and are deemed permitted after 30 days underneath present provisions. Nagpur Today