At a seminar organised by CUTS International, Aruna Sundararajan said that DoT receives 40-50 million complaints each year. She also quoted that there should be a legal backing for customers who come to DoT with grievances. The telecom secretary also highlighted the need for "strong consumer movement and consumer activists" while presenting her thoughts on stage. Sundararajan said, "Recently when we were reviewing the grievances of the telecom sector... we have found that we have something like 40-50 million complaints.”
The senior official did not forget to mention the need for strict government policies. "It is also important that in terms of the policy environment that we provide...we, rest of the stakeholders (other than telecom companies) also have equally important responsibility," she said.
Additionally, Sundararajan stressed the importance of innovative breakthroughs and the presence of consumer protection and rights in the telecom industry.
Ram Sewak Sharma, Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), was also present at the venue. He also voiced his concerns about the industry and said: "quality disclosure and transparent norms are one of the most important components of service delivery."
Trai chairman further said about policy shaping and remarked: "India needs Open Sky Policy and new technologies by promoting competition to ensure that players come up with solutions to provide quality telecom services for consumers."
Telecom subscribers in India are plagued with issues such as slow data speeds, no network connectivity, payment issues, wrong tariff plan benefits and various others. DoT is also taking note of such complaints from consumers on microblogging portal Twitter and is actively engaging with the users and forcing telcos to fix the issues at the earliest.
