Leading telecom operators including Bharti Airtel, BSNL, Vodafone and the Tatas are understood to have been slapped penalty for non-verification of subscribers in the J&K and Assam circles.
According to sources, the department of telecom has slapped a penalty of Rs 5.33 crore (Rs 53.3 million) on Airtel for J&K and Rs 90.8 lakh (Rs 9.08 million) for Assam. State-owned BSNL also faces a penalty of Rs 1.48 crore (Rs 14.8 million) in J&K and Rs 7.33 lakh (Rs 733,000) in Assam.
The government has taken this extreme step as these two states have been severely hit by insurgency and non-verification of subscribers could lead to escalation of illegal activities.
The DoT has been issuing notifications from time to time to mobile operators to ensure 100 per cent verification.
Vodafone-Essar has also been penalised with Rs 24.90 lakh (Rs 2.49 million) in J&K and Rs 1.36 lakh (Rs 136,000) in Assam. Dishnet was also found lacking subscriber verification and has been asked to pay a penalty of Rs 22 lakh for J&K and Rs 58.60 lakh in Assam.
The Tatas face a penalty of Rs 9.05 lakh (Rs 905,000) for J&K for defaulting on the norms while for Assam, the amount is Rs 6,000.
The Anil Ambani-led RCom has been slapped a minimum penalty of just Rs 83,000 in J&K and nil in Assam as it has 100 per cent subscriber verification in the state.
As per the licence norms, Rs 1,000 is the penalty for every unverified connection on the provider.
