Mahendranagar, March 5:

Over 50 people in the Chandani and Dodhara village development committees of Kanchanpur district have been using Indian mobile phones after the Nepali telephone service, they had been using, was cut off on February 1, 2005.

Users said they resorted to using Indian mobile phone connections after the government citing security reasons, disconnected the 13 land line telephones they had been using until February 1, 2005.

“We are compelled to use Indian cell phone services because there are no telephone lines here,” a user who did not want to be named, said.

Until the royal takeover, there were eight VHF phones in Dodhara and five in Chandani village development committees but now there are only two telephone lines and, locals say, they are beyond commoners’ reach.

The numbers of people using Indian mobiles has been increasing since because simcards for such a service is easily available in Indian markets.

Mobile service provided by the Nepal Telecom also operates in both the VDCs but the service has been denied there due to security reason. More people will be using Indian cell phone service if the government does not open telephone services immediately, local users said.

“People in Chandani and Dodhara resorted to use the Indian phones after Nepal government did not show concern over their problem,” a local journalist Dodhara, Laxman Tiwari said.

However, NT staff in Mahendranagar said all the telephones in both VDCs could be promptly resumed if the security committee decided for the operation of the service.