South Corporation to regulate installation of mobile towers

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation has decided to regulate installation of mobile towers to minimise the adverse effects of radiation from them.

 The corporation will regulate towers installed over unauthorised buildings and structures closer to schools and hospitals. The standing committee raised the issue at a meeting after which the chairperson asked the commissioner to prepare  a report on all mobile towers under the South Corporation.  “The officials have been asked to prepare a report enlisting the exact number of towers under the jurisdiction of South Corporation; how many of them are closer to school and hospital buildings,” said Rajesh Gehlot, chairman of the standing committee. “The officials need to identify how many towers have been illegally installed and what action was taken against the violators,” the chairman added. Raising the issue in the meeting, Leader of Opposition in South Corporation Farhad Suri said it has been scientifically proved that cellphone towers have side effects on human health.  “There are several national and international studies where scientists have found a strong correlation between health problems and exposure to microwaves from mobile phones and mobile towers.  Girish Kumar from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, had sent a report to department of telecommunications at the centre which has more than 200 references from peer-reviewed publications in the end,” Suri said.  Other councillors complained that the towers are installed on unauthorised buildings which pose great risk.  A report by the erstwhile MCD commissioner states that there were 5,364 mobile towers in Municipal Corporation of Delhi area as on April 24, 2010. Of these 2,952 were unauthorised.