Illegal cellphone tower operators to face action

Deputy commissioner directs actions against those operating mobile towers without NoCs. According to the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), there are 580 mobile signal towers in the city but operators of only 26 of these have obtained requisite permissions.

A day after taking charge as the nodal officer of mobile towers in the city, deputy commissioner (DC) Vinay Pratap Singh directed civic bodies to check if the operators of the operational mobile towers have submitted details of radiation levels and have obtained necessary permits.

The civic body has been directed to check if mobile tower operators have submitted details of radiation levels and have obtained necessary permits. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

Officials said that the deputy commissioner is checking measures pertaining to fire NoCs (no-objection certificates) after it was found that none of the operators who have set up mobile towers had procured the certificate from the fire department.

“Directions have been issued to the departments concerned for procuring details regarding mobile towers. We will examine the issue of fire NoCs as well,” the deputy commissioner said.

According to the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), there are 580 mobile signal towers in the city but operators of only 26 of these have obtained requisite permissions.

“There were several departments that were given the charge of looking after mobile towers, which led to confusion and gaps in coordination. Hence, the DC’s office has taken over the charge and will act as the nodal agency. This will, thereby, make monitoring of related works easy,” Sudhir Singh Chauhan, senior town planner of MCG, said.

On Monday, following a meeting among officials of civic bodies at the Mini Secretariat, held by Vinay Pratap Singh, which also included officials of telecommunication companies, it was decided that permission for all applications for establishing mobile towers would be approved by the DC’s office after all departments concerned issued NoCs.

Further, after submitting the fee and issuing a letter of intent (LoI), the operator concerned would need to procure the NoCs from the departments within 45 days, failing which the application would be rejected, officials said.

One of the issues pertaining to the fire NoCs is the loophole in the Haryana Fire Service Act, which states that a NoC is not necessary for buildings or structures without occupancy.