NGO seeks regulatory body for telecom towers radiation 'e-petition'

Bangalore, Feb 7: If you want to lend your 'support for a social cause' regarding

, then, you have a golden opportunity to take participation in a nation wide 'e-petition on improved regulations for cell towers'.

In an attempt to spread awareness of cell tower radiation issues, Surakshit Vatavaran (safe environment) Charitable Trust, a Bangalore-based NGO, has organised an 'e-petition to the Honourable Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on the subject of "cell tower radiation" for a regulatory body on cell tower installations and monitoring radiation levels to protect public health.'

Currently, there are approx. 7.3 Lakh cell towers in our country with about 10 service providers for each of the 22 service areas.

The initiative is taken to monitor radiation levels to protect public health.

Unlike many European countries, India faces two unique challenges: Multiple service providers and high population density especially in urban areas.

As a result, there are locations where multiple antenna are installed very close to highly populated areas.

However, lack of proper information and absence of single regulatory body to address public concerns is giving rise to number of local protests against cell towers by concerned citizens located next to cell towers.

Some of them demand removal/ relocation of such towers which might impact network connectivity and operations adversely. Hence, there is need to find solutions for safe use of this technology which is practical and feasible for all stakeholders rather than demanding removal of cell towers arbitrarily.

About E-Petition

The e-petition requests the government to create a regulatory body to map the location details of existing/ proposed cell towers, their operational details (like number of antenna, power transmitted by the antenna etc) and make such information easily accessible to all citizens and to address concerns from citizens in a fair and systemic approach, rather than making the citizens to approach multiple government departments/ functions.

The e-petition also requests for scientific studies to be carried out to determine if there is any long term health effects due to cell tower radiation in India and as a precautionary measure, create a policy framework to avoid unscientific proliferation of towers, especially near thickly populated areas and to provide and enforce guidelines to avoid locating cell towers within close proximity of schools and hospitals and near thickly populated areas.

The e-petition can be accessed from the trust website http://www.sv-india.org.

With a goal of collecting 50,000 e-signatures, the NGO aims to provide awareness, knowledge and resources to the society so that informed decisions can be made about living and working with modern technology, technology products and services associated with the use of such technology.

OneIndia News