India to bar prepaid phones in Jammu and Kashmir

NEW DELHI, Oct 30 — To address serious security concerns, India today decided to ban pre-paid mobile phone connections in Jammu and Kashmir from November 1, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI)’s report.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has decided that no fresh pre-paid mobile connections should be issued and existing pre-paid SIM cards should not be renewed in the state after November 1. The move will affect nearly 3.8 million pre-paid mobile phone subscribers in the state, PTI said.

The Ministry has asked the Department of Telecommunications to take appropriate action in the matter for implementation of the decision.

The step comes in the wake of reports that proper verification is not being done while providing such pre-paid mobile connections by the service providers/vendors, a Home Ministry spokesperson said. In some cases, a single person had been issued with a multiple number of connections.

The fake documents/identity numbers are also reportedly being used by the vendors particularly, in the case of pre-paid connections.

“This situation had given rise to serious security concerns. Hence, the decision,” he said.

During his visit to the state last fortnight Home Minister P Chidambaram had said the government has been making efforts to persuade pre-paid subscribers to switch to post-paid connections due to security issues.

In Jammu and Kashmir, Airtel has nearly 1.9 million subscribers followed by BSNL having 12 lakh and Aircel having 700, 000.