Dimapur, Feb. 11: Citizens of Nagaland are experiencing chaos in their day-to-day activities and transactions due to the shutdown of mobile data and internet services besides SMS by the Nagaland government for the past few days on the pretext of controlling the sensitive situation in the state.
The shutdown of said services has only created inconvenience especially for business establishments, students, educational institutions and local entrepreneurs.
During interactions with data service providers concerning the ban on mobile internet service and SMS, it was informed that their local engineers and technical teams simply received a notification from their superiors to deactivate the service till further notification was issued by their "higher-ups".A telephonic conversation with the state’s Home Commissioner brought claims that the shutdown was done in order to stop ‘inflaming or escalating rumours around the state.’
Their department received an order from the government of Nagaland to issue a notice to the department of Telecom to inform service providers to block mobile internet service and SMS in the state under the Telegraph Act 1885 starting from the night of January 31 until further notice.
He also said that the department was undertaking an ‘assessment’ of the issue ‘by taking feedback from the police department once a day to resume the service.’ However, nothing is certain at the moment, the official asserted.
Till date there has not been a single government notification made public or the reason behind the shutdown.
