Twenty years ago, Samvada was the first news magazine to report that mobile towers on residential properties were bad for the health of the residents and the neighbours.
A resident victim filed a PIL in court attaching a copy of Samvada that carried that story. We believe that the court then directed the municipal body to study the matter and consult experts from abroad and file a reply.
It was revealed that the mobile towers do generate harmful radiations but they are not strong enough to harm the health of a normal person. However, they are not to be erected within hundred meters of schools and hospitals.
At that time the towers were carrying very minimal load but over period of time the service providers erected multiple antennas on one tower and increased the load many times. All this has multiplied the harmful radiation which must be definitely harming even a normal person. This has gone unnoticed after the clarification placed in the courts.
Now Noida Authority has started coming down heavily on residents who have installed these towers without taking their permission.
In recent news item it was published that Noida Authority has cancelled the lease deed of a landlord for installing a rooftop mobile tower on his property and is threatening to take action in similar cases, a grouping of telecom infrastructure players alleged on Monday, but the authority said norms do not allow installation of telecom towers in residential premises. Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA) in a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said that the orders of Noida Authority are neither in line with Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules, 2016, nor aligned with the orders issued by the state government.
The industry body mobile service providers have said that it has requested the Noida Authority office to kindly issue immediate directions to the concerned officers to withdraw such cancellation notices issued to landlords, hold and withdraw any sort of coercive actions taken or proposed, amend their rules in line with Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules 2016 and allow communication sites in residential areas.
However, Noida Authority is in no mood to relent. We recommend to all sector residents to take immediate action and remove these towers from their buildings to avoid cancellation of lease deeds.
