The regional government in Gujarat, India ordered the local mobile phone networks to jam all SMS messages yesterday from 3pm to 8pm. The move was claimed to preserve law and order during the religious festival, Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath. The local operators received instructions by fax from the home department yesterday morning to suspend their SMS services.
 The Rath yatra |
A spokesman for Hutch, the largest service provider in the state, told The Times of India that "the service is being suspended for five hours on Tuesday in compliance of the state government directive for maintaining law and order during the Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath".
The fax message signed by J R Rajput, deputy secretary (law and order) in the home department, said "we have received certain intelligence inputs based on past experience as well as certain reasonable apprehension that SMS facility in your cellular/WLL phone might be misused for spreading rumours and panic among the people of our state".
Despite the concerns, the event concluded peacefully in the coastal town of Puri, when Lord Jagannath -- regarded as the Lord of the Universe and an incarnation of Lord Vishnu in Hindu mythology -- began the journey to his maternal aunt's place, the Gundicha Temple, which is also considered his birthplace"
Posted to the site on 2nd July 2003
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/9196.php