Get news on the go with Valley’s SMS network

Mehbooba’s news was sent out by ‘Sach News Network’,which operates from the South Kashmir district of Anantnag. “Minutes after the accident,our correspondent in Udhampur,which is nearest to Jhajjar Kotli,alerted our Jammu office. They flashed the news back to us and we alerted our subscribers,” says Maqbool Veeray,the ‘chief editor’ of the service. “Nobody knew it before us. Even PDP leaders learnt about the accident through us”.

The modus operandi is simple: buy a BSNL SIM with a Rs-725 plan and use it to text news to subscribers. The plan doesn’t charge anything for calls and texts between BSNL subscribers.

The state has about 40 lakh cellphone subscribers (both pre-paid and post-paid) and three major networks—BSNL,Airtel and Aircel. Majority of the dozen-odd SMS news services in the state use BSNL SIM cards.

At Rs 100 for six months,the subscription charges are nominal. But interestingly,the subscription is free for government officials,VVIPs,senior journalists,security officers—that is,anyone with clout and power. That explains the proliferation of these networks. The people who run them do so because it gives them access to the government and an opportunity to curry favour with people in high places. On the other hand,political parties are also known to patronise the services,giving them “generous donations” to publicise their programmes.

All the networks boast of the state’s top guns among their subscribers. These text messages go to everybody in government,from senior to top bureaucrats,police officers and significantly to the Army,CRPF and BSF. “We also text the Chief Minister,DGP and IGs of CRPF and BSF,and even Brigadiers in the Army,” says Veeray of Sach News Network. He claims to have 70,000 subscribers in the state,spread across all three regions,Kashmir,Jammu and Ladakh.

However,the competition is severe. Giving Sach a run for its money are QNS,PBI,JKNN,INB,NBI and a host of other networks. The subscriber base of News Bureau of India (NBI) is around 35000,says its owner Fazal Haq Bhat. “We cover the entire state,” claims Bhat.

There is a dark side to these news networks. Some SMS reporters have been known to blackmail ordinary people and bureaucrats,threatening to reveal scandalous details of their lives. During the Amarnath land crisis last year,the government banned all SMSes in the Valley because they were spreading rumours and adding to the tension.

But there are positives too. “We highlight the civic problems in far-flung areas. We ask our subscribers to SMS us about the problems in their areas and then forward it to bureaucrats concerned,” says Beigh Shameem of INB.

But are these services registered? “None,” says a senior police officer of the state’s Central Intelligence Department. “We are digging into this. We will talk to BSNL and other telecommunication networks and ask them to clarify the provisions under which they provide such facilities to these networks,since they are using them commercially.”

Farooq Ahmad,IGP,Kashmir,says,“We know that the number of such networks has increased. We have not yet gone into the registration aspect.”