J&K govt lifts ban on SMS

Decision comes after debacle in Lok Sabha elections

In the wake of recent poll debacle National Conference government in Jammu and Kashmir has decided to lift the ban on Short Message Service (SMS) imposed in 2010 on prepaid mobile phones.

An official said on the instructions of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah that the restriction on SMS on prepaid cell phones in the state has been revoked.

“The subscribers of prepaid cell phones had made requests to the Chief Minister in this regard and he issued instructions to the concerned agencies to lift the said restriction,” he added.

Banned in June 2010

The state government had in June 2010 banned SMS for indefinite period on prepaid mobile phones.

In 2012, Sachin Pilot, the then Union Telecom Minister and brother-in-law of Omar Abdullah, during a visit to Jammu and Kashmir had said that people needed and deserved this service.

Reason for defeat

Sources told Deccan Herald that the decision to lift the ban on SMS was taken by the Chief Minister as he was told by his advisors on Monday during a party meeting that it was one of the reasons for people feeling annoyed with the party.

People had been criticising the government for the ban on SMS when it was claiming that normalcy had returned in the last few years.

In a setback to the NC, all its three candidates were defeated by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nominees in the Valley.

Even NC president and Union minister Farooq Abdullah lost to PDP’s Tariq Hameed Karra in Srinagar by over 40,000 votes. This was the first-ever electoral defeat for Abdullah.