Mobile phones of Forest officials go silent in Jagtial due to ‘low balance’

The official phone numbers of officials as well as staff are not working as the SIM cards have not been recharged, leading to difficulties for people to get in contact with the forest department.

Jagtial: Mobile phones of Forest officials in the district have gone silent. The official phone numbers of officials as well as staff are not working as the SIM cards have not been recharged, leading to difficulties for people to get in contact with the forest department.

Eight years ago, the State government provided separate mobile phone numbers to the forest department right from the beat officer to higher officials. Besides providing SIM cards, the government used to recharge these numbers with Rs.500 each every month., thus enabling 1.5 GB data and unlimited free calls within the forest department as a package. However, with the government not recharging these numbers for the last six months, the services have been stopped by the telecom service provider.

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In the district, there are five ranges including Jagtial, Metpalli, Raikal, Dharmapuri and Kodimial. Besides 26 sections, 76 beats fall in five ranges, with 24 section and 37 beat officers working here. Section and beat officials, who worked in the district, have been transferred to other places in the recent transfers. Local people have not been introduced to the new officers. So they are unable to pass on information to forest officials about teakwood and sand smuggling as well as wild animals being poached in the forests as they do not know the personal mobile numbers of the new officers.

A forest officer said on condition of anonymity that earlier, the government used to recharge SIM cards regularly. However, this practice stopped during the last six months. So the official mobile phones were not working. Informing that officials were using their personal numbers, he advised the people to contact them on their personal numbers.