New Delhi: Relief in Sight for People Feeling Harassed and Hounded by Telemarketers
Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi (SP)
New Delhi, Aug 6: Feeling annoyed, hounded and helpless at the innumerable telemarketing calls that are enough to set allergic reaction into motion the moment your phone starts ringing? Tired of reading through innumerable messages that fill your mobile phone’s inbox? Till now, the consumers were left feeling agitated over their helplessness to do anything other than cutting the call midway or deleting the messages received. They can expect to get help soon to handle this problem, because of a small incident.
The ancient saying, ‘only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches,’ appeared to come true for the umpteenth time, when an opposition leader who was participating in a meeting with the union finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, received a phone call from a telemarketing company, offering home loans to him. This call infuriated the finance minister. In effect, the caller inadvertently set into motion a series of moves that may finally be able to throttle the untimely, unwarranted calls by those who seem to feel that improving their earnings is much more important than honouring the privacy and convenience of the individuals. Within a short time thereafter, minister for information and broadcasting, Ambika Soni, too received an unsolicited telemarketing SMS.
Reportedly, the finance minister was involved in a serious discussion with colleagues, political leaders, and officials on ways and means to break the deadlock in the parliament over the issue of price rise, when the irritating call came. Telecom minister, taken aback by the report, directed the officials of his department to take steps against the companies which encroach into the privacy of the people, and cause undue annoyance to them. The efforts of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which has been fighting a loosing battle with the telemarketing companies on this issue, is likely to get a shot in the arm with the initiatives undertaken by the minister. It may be noted that the TRAI’s efforts to regulate such calls through creation of ‘do not call registry’ have not succeeded in limiting such calls.
The minister has asked the telecom secretary, P J Thomas, to call for a meeting to consider prohibiting such calls. The ministry is likely to convene a meeting of all the service providers to provide relief to the telephone users of the country from obnoxious calls which aim to sell them anything from insurance policies to memberships of clubs. In his note sent to the secretary, the minister is understood to have specifically remarked that the calls being made at all times of the day, are intruding into the private lives of the telecom consumers. The telephone users, who have been harassed by unending talks by such callers at odd times, now hope that the telecom minister will succeed in his efforts.