SURAT, July 28: If you dial a diamond merchant and end up talking to a grocer or find yourself on line to a paan shop owner when you have called up a vice-chancellor, or when a curt individual hurling a string of invectives tells you that none of them exists and bangs the receiver even before you could react; don't curse yourself for your ineptitude with numbers.Blame your miseries on Surat Telephone directory, the complimentary book subscribers get from the telecom department. Subscribers are paying a heavy cost for this freebie, last published in 1994. Not all can hit the bull's eye when they dial 197 for inquiry, and have no option but to rely on the moth-eaten directory. Four years is a pretty long period, even if you consider the sluggish pace at which the department moves.
By a conservative estimate at least 60 per cent numbers have changed, but their presence in the directory is a constant source of nuisance, both for callers and those at the other end. Many levels have changed and new exchangeshave come up recently, but despite its efforts the department has not been able to come out with a directory.
The department does not print the directory, but gives the contract to a private company and gets free copies for its subscribers and royalty. The company recovers the money by securing advertisements in the yellow page section while the white pages, which have subscribers numbers and vital information about the department, increases the worth of the directory. There is only one taker for the tender the department periodically invites for printing -- Sesa Seat, the company which published the directory for five years between 1989 and 1994.
But once the five-year contract ended the department and the company fell apart as they could not agree on contract terms. The department insists that the company should give free copies to all 1.5 lakh subscribers in addition to royalty amount.
The company says it can give copies to only 65 per cent subscribers. It has been coming out with only Yellow PagesPlus since 1994. While the new subscribers are not provided any directory, the book has become a useless object for those who have it.
Telecom officials insist that the company should renew its old contract with the department on the same terms. Surat telecom general manager Y P Kataria told The Indian Express, "The company is blackmailing us indirectly due to the monopoly it enjoys."
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
