Yes, you heard it right! By paying Rs 4,000 one can get the mobile tower examined by experts to find out whether it is emitting harmful electromagnetic radiations. This is now possible becauseof Department of Telecom (DoT), Ministry of Communications. Today they launched Tarang Sanchar, a web portal for Information sharing on Mobile Towers and EMF Emission Compliances.
The issue of EMF emission from mobile towers has been in thenews for the last couple of years and studies after have never been able to come out conclusive evidence. To address the concerns of citizens of India related to towers, Manoj Sinha, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Communications and Minister of State for Railways, said that the launch of Tarang, “ Sanchar Portal will definitely help in clearing myths and misconception of public on mobile towers and emissions from them.”
He further said, “The portal empowers any common person to know, at the convenience of a mouse click, about towers working in a particular locality and whether they are compliant with the EMF emission norms defined by the Government.
The EMF Portal is designed to provide a public interface where an easy map-based search feature has been provided for viewing the mobile towers in the vicinity of any locality. By a click of a button, information on EMF compliance status of mobile towers can be accessed. Detailed information about any tower site, if requested, will be sent on email to the users. Additionally, any person can request for EMF emission measurement at a location by paying a fee of Rs 4000 online. The tests will be conducted by the local Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM) filed unit of DoT and the test report will be provided to the requestor.
The portal also has ‘EMF Overview’ and ‘Learn’ Sections, which provide numerous articles, booklets and videos, to further educate the citizens about EMF and coverage of telecom services. The public can also access the ‘DoT Initiatives’ section which has information on various leaflets, articles and Frequently Asked Questions.