Bulk SMSes sent to Anna's supporters blocked

Team Anna's favourite tool of spreading the word, bulk SMSes, came under fire amidst allegations that the government made all attempts to stop the service.

Team Anna's favourite tool of spreading the word, bulk SMSes, came under fire amidst allegations that the government made all attempts to stop the service. Although there was no official confirmation about any ban on bulk SMSes, no message was received by the supporters of India Against Corruption (IAC) on Monday and Tuesday.

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Prashant Bhushan, a member of the joint draft committee for the lokpal bill, said: "The government has pressured the company that provided us the SMS service and tried to hamper our networking technology."

On Wednesday, the service was resumed even though the IAC campaigners approached another service provider.

Unicel Technologies was asked on Tuesday to send 50 lakh SMSes. But on Wednesday, Vinay Aggrawal, MD of Unicel, said, "We did not receive anything from team Anna."

Anna's associates said that they had sent out one message to be delivered to six lakh people through Netcore, but no message was delivered on Monday and Tuesday. Officials from Netcore could not be reached. Sources said, "They are unwilling to speak with the media." The ministry of communications and information technology has not issued any directive to stop bulk SMSes, said a senior ministry official.