Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (EP)

Mangaluru, May 18: A Mangaluru based trader has been receiving hundreds of SMS messages meant for government offices on his mobile phone due to a mistake by the government administration.

Telephone No. 9731979899 belongs to Karnataka government’s food and civil supplies department. Changes in ration card, gas connection and linking of Aadhar card can be done by sending a message to this number. Therefore this mobile telephone number is provided at ration shops, Panchayat and Nemmadi centres asking BPL card holders to send messages to link Aadhar card and obtain LPG connections.

However the telephone number has put a Mangaluru based trader into a quandary. As the government office has committed a mistake in two of the digits in the telephone number, the trader has been receiving hundreds of unwanted messages that are meant to the government offices. Karim’s telephone number is 9731919899. The government office has provided 9731979899 to send the messages. The slight difference between 91 and 97 has spoilt the trader’s sleep. The messages are coming to him mainly from Raichur, Bhatkal, Hubli and Dharwad.

Karim, a social worker realising that it is a mistake by the government office, on many occasions has telephoned the people who sent him the messages and given the correct number. The people in turn have told him that the number was given to them in the government outlet and a board with the number is also hung in the ration shops. It is obvious that the government has displayed wrong numbers in many places.

There is no doubt that the lapse will make several people lose their ration cards. The people send messages to the wrong number and keep quiet. Therefore BPL card entries do not get recorded in the government office causing cancellation of their cards. Besides the last date for linking Aadhar card is fixed. The concerned department needs to rectify the fault.