Government Allows Phone Recharge Shops To Operate Amid Lockdown, Justifies Them As Public Utilities

The Government has allowed telecom recharge shops to operate amid the nationwide lockdown in a move which is likely to aid over 450 million feature phone users of the nation who do not have access to internet connection or digital recharge facilities, reports Economic Times.

Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla wrote to the chief secretaries of all State on yesterday (21 April) allowing all public utilities including recharge facilities to operate with the standard operating procedure for social distancing.

The decision of the government is also expected to benefit the users needing mobile phone repair services as most of the phone recharge shops also provide such ancillary services.

Earlier, telecom companies Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea had decided to increase the prepaid validity of their low-income subscribers till 3 May so as to ensure they do not face communication hurdles during the span of lockdown. Meanwhile, Reliance Jio had on 2 April given 100 minutes of free talk time and 100 text messages to all its users.