M A I N   N E W S

Haryana ministers’ cellphones go silent
Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 4
Haryana ministers’ cellular phones have stopped ringing. And they have no clue to the reasons behind their “mobile silence”.

The attempt to connect the ministers on their mobile phones is met with a computerised response: “This number does not exist”. The ministers are on the network of Escotel, which provides cellular phone service in the state.

However, the cellular phones of senior officers like Chief Secretary L.M. Goyal and officers in the Chief Minister’s Secretariat are working. Mr Goyal could not be contacted as he is on leave. His cellular phone did ring but nobody answered the call. The officers are on the Spice network.

Inquiries have revealed that personal staff of the ministers received a letter from the Chief Secretary’s office yesterday that if the ministers did not find the mobile service satisfactory, they could disconnect their phones. But before the ministers could respond, they found that their mobiles had stopped ringing.

Informed sources say that even before the personal staff of the ministers received the Chief Secretary’s communication, Mr Rohila, an official working in the Chief Secretary’s office, had delivered a letter in the Ambala office of Escotel, asking the company to disconnect immediately service to the mobile phones being used by the Haryana ministers and other senior political functionaries.