The four year old ban on Short Messaging Service (SMS) on pre-paid mobile phones in Jammu Kashmir has been lifted. Disclosing this, Chief General Manager of BSNL, R K Koul, told The Indian Express that this follows instructions from state"™s Home Department which in a written communication said that the ban on SMS on pre-paid mobile phones has been revoked.
The ban has been lifted with immediate effect, but the service will be available to subscribers from tomorrow morning. The subscribers, in response to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah"™s call asking people to apprise him of the reasons behind his party"™s debacle in recent Lok Sabha polls in the state, had requested him to lift the ban.
Following 2010 unrest in the Valley, the state government had imposed ban on SMS facility in the case of all the mobile phone subscribers. However, after six months, the ban was withdrawn in the case of post paid mobile phone subscribers, but it was allowed to continue in the case of pre-paid ones in the state.