BMC to follow new mobile tower norms

With the Centre asking the states to implement the new mobile phone tower emission norms from September 1, 2012 and follow the guidelines to issue clearance for the installation of mobile phone towers, the BMC will now take action against the illegal towers in the city according to the new norms and dismantle those which are not obeying the new norms.

Updated on: Dec 20, 2012, 13:49:49 IST

Hindustan Times | By Neeraj Santoshi, Bhopal

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With the Centre asking the states to implement the new mobile phone tower emission norms from September 1, 2012 and follow the guidelines to issue clearance for the installation of mobile phone towers, the BMC will now take action against the illegal towers in the city according to the new norms and dismantle those which are not obeying the new norms.

The BMC city planner Amit Gajbhiye said the BMC would intensify the campaign against the illegal mobile towers in the city according to the new norms, released by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to ensure best possible telecom services without compromising on public safety/human health. “We have around 637 mobile towers in Bhopal of which around 270 are illegal, 259 are legal and another 50 mobile towers have cases pending in the court. Till date we have dismantled around 58 towers”, he said.

The BMC has also asked officers to see to it that no permissions are given for setting up of the towers near or atop schools and hospitals/nursing homes or near overhead water tanks.On March 29, 2012, after the Congress party corporators alleged corruption and irregularities in the setting up of mobile towers within the city’s municipal limits, the BMC speaker Kailash Mishra constituted a high-level committee to investigate the allegations and asked it to present the report in the next meeting of the BMC council.

The speaker had also instructed that no new permission for setting up of the towers be given by the BMC until the report was submitted. The committee comprised mayor Krishna Gaur, BMC commissioner Rajneesh Shrivastava, and corporators Praveen Saxena and Azizuddin.

Given the numerous illegal mobile phone towers in Bhopal and huge financial losses incurred to the BMC due to them the BMC later chose a middle path- instead of demolishing all the illegal towers, it wanted to regularise them. The BMC wishes to regularise towers after charging the tower operators with compounding fee and the initial fee.

Based on the recommendations of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Radiation, norms for exposure limit for the Radio Frequency Field (Base Station Emissions) was reduced to 1/10th of the existing limits prescribed by the International Commission on Non- Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). These directions had to be implemented from April 1, 2012, initially but the date was later extended to September 1, 2012.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neeraj Santoshi
Neeraj Santoshi is the Chief of Bureau for Hindustan Times in Uttarakhand, where he leads the state reporting team while covering government, politics, environment, wildlife, Uttarakhand High Court, and issues shaping the Himalayan region. With more than two decades in journalism across conflict zones, he has covered politically sensitive regions and environmentally fragile landscapes, and focused on stories that combine public interest with in-depth storytelling. An alumnus of Pune University with a Master’s in Communication Studies, he has reported extensively from Jammu & Kashmir (2003-2010), Madhya Pradesh (2010 to 2018 ) and Uttarakhand (Since 2018), covering subjects ranging from insurgency, elections and governance to wildlife conservation, mining, climate change, agriculture, human rights and social justice. He has covered politics and legislative assemblies of both Jammu & Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh over more than a decade. Before taking over as Chief of Bureau in Uttarakhand, he served as Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times in Madhya Pradesh and earlier reported for both Hindustan Times and The Indian Express in Jammu & Kashmir, where he covered state politics, environment and insurgency-related developments. Over the years, his stories have focused on environmental degradation, wildlife, illegal mining, governance and the changing social fabric of Himalayan states and Central India. He is particularly interested in long-form explanatory journalism, and stories that explore the intersection of ecology, conservation, governance and society. Outside the newsroom, Neeraj enjoys reading widely on neuroscience, consciousness studies, Artificial Intelligence and quantum physics, with a special interest in Kashmiri Tantric Shaivist traditions. He is also passionate about wildlife, mountaineering and the Himalayas, interests that continue to inform his reporting and deepen his understanding of the region he covers.Read More

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