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Thursday, November 24, 2011

DM orders seizure of 5 mobile telecom towers in West Sikkim

GANGTOK, 23 Nov: District Magistrate, West, S Pradhan, has seized 5 mobile telecom towers in West Sikkim and placed them under police custody. These towers have been embroiled in controversy for the past month or so over nonpayment of dues to the local youth who were contracted to construct the towers.
Following the move of a group of local youth in West Sikkim who sat on an indefinite hunger strike over nonpayment of their dues [amounting to Rs. 5 lakh] by a mobile tower company (earlier reported in NOW!), the DM had issued an ultimatum to the concerned company to pay up by 18 November or face shut down of its towers.
It is informed that when no one from the company turned up on the given date, following which the DM ordered that the 5 mobile towers in question be shut down and placed under police custody.
The DM had issued a summons to the concerned companies as per section 146 of the Criminal Procedure Code. They had been directed to appear before him, failing which the 5 towers were to be shut down and put in the custody of the police.
The five mobile towers are located in Rinchenpong, Phunsebong, Malbasey, Lungchok and Lungzik, all in West Sikkim.
As of now, three towers have already been shut down and seized, while seizure of the remaining 2 towers is being completed by the west district authorities.
It is also informed that following the closure of its towers, Indus Towers, claiming to be among the largest tower construction companies in India and the owners of these towers in West Sikkim, approached the DM West today with a plea to be given a week’s time to sort out the matter.
The DM and other officials are to decide on whether or not to allow another week’s time to the company.
However, the DM informs that the main accused, Nilesh Agarwal, is yet to be heard from yet.
The construction work had been commissioned by Indus Towers, and which claims to have already made all the necessary payments to ESSENN Communications represented by Nilesh Agarwal, who, incidentally, had called on by the DM a few weeks ago to make the necessary payments and was reported to have challenged the order that there were no payments to be made following which the summons were issued.
It is a tricky situation here with the main company, Indus Towers, claiming that it had made all necessary payments to ESSEN Communications. Should the towers be shut down, Indus Towers will also suffer great losses.
Tshering Bhutia, one of the affected youth had earlier informed that the total bill amount for the construction work was originally over Rs. 8.93 lakh. But when the youth started feeling harassed over the delay in payment and made frequent trips to Siliguri, they accepted the contention of the company that this was an inflated figure and had to be brought down to Rs. 4.98 lakh. However, even this amount is pending for the past several months.

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