Internet Services in Valley Hospitals Yet to Resume

Internet services in all government-run hospitals and SMS services to all mobile phones were to be restored from 31 December midnight onwards in the Kashmir Valley.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@DefencePost)

The Broadband internet services for hospitals in the Valley were yet to resume on Wednesday, 1 January, despite the Jammu and Kashmir government having promised restoration of the same a day ago.

On 10 December, some short message service (SMS) were enabled on mobile phones in order to facilitate communication for students, scholarship applicants, traders and others.

Government's official spokesperson Rohit Kansal had on 31 December 2019 said that the broadband services in hospitals and SMS services on post-paid mobile phones would be restored at midnight.

A communication blockade was imposed across J&K after the revocation of Article 370 on 5 August 2019. The curbs were lifted gradually with landlines being restored first, followed by the opening up of post-paid mobile phone services.

While broadband internet has been restored in Jammu, it still remains suspended in Kashmir, according to IANS.

The Valley's premier government-run SMHS Hospital here is without internet facilities for the nearly five months.

An official of the SMHS hospital administration said the internet services at the medical institution were not restored on 1 January. “The internet is not working. The services have not yet been restored," he said.

The only hospital in the Valley where the internet was working was Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura, but the service was restored there in the month of October last year.

Mobile internet service continues to remain blocked both in Jammu and Srinagar. The service was restored last week in Kargil area of the newly formed Union Territory of Ladakh.

Prepaid mobile phone services continue to remain suspended in Kashmir, the IANS report said.

(With inputs from PTI and IANS.)