AAP MP Raghav Chadha strongly raised the issue related to consumers doing prepaid mobile recharge in Parliament. He said that as soon as the validity of recharge ends, telecom companies also stop incoming calls, which is arbitrary towards consumers and this should be stopped.
He said in the House that if a customer’s recharge runs out then it is understandable to stop outgoing calls, but it is not appropriate to stop incoming calls also. Due to this, neither any person is able to contact that consumer nor are he able to receive important messages like OTP on his phone. This situation can make people helpless in case of emergency. Raghav Chadha demanded that incoming calls of consumers should continue for at least one year so that the ‘right to communication’ of the common citizen is not affected.
Along with this, he also termed the 28 day recharge plan as a fraud on consumers. He said that there are 12 months in a year, but due to the plan having validity of 28 days, customers have to recharge 13 times in a year. In such a situation, the validity of the recharge plan should be according to the calendar month i.e. 30 or 31 days.
He said that in today’s time, mobile phone has become no longer a luxury but a necessity for the common citizen. Therefore, telecom companies should behave transparently and fairly with consumers.