VADODARA: To control rumours in the city after two days of rioting, the city police has ordered mobile service providers to discontinue mobile internet services for three days beginning Saturday morning. The decision came as a surprise to most citizens and to many it meant inconvenience in business.

Cellular data services, including 2G and 3G internet services barring landline broadband, group SMS as well as MMS services were ordered shut till Tuesday morning. No formal announcement was made regarding this by the city police or the internet service providers.

Several Walled City areas witnessed heavy rioting on Thursday and Friday. The trouble began in Fatehpura after a tuition class owner posted a morphed picture of a famous Muslim religious shrine. The riots then spread to many other areas.

Vadodara police commissioner E Radhakrishnan said the decision had become necessary as there was a lot of rumour mongering on Friday due to messaging services. "If the situation remains peaceful, we may allow the services to continue before Tuesday," he said.

However, the decision has not gone down well with people whose businesses and daily interactions were affected adversely due to disruption of mobile internet services. "Shutting down internet is meaningless as miscreants can cause problems even through phone calls. This should not have been done without a warning," said Malcolm D'souza, a social media marketing executive.

"With online business it is very difficult to stay without internet for a moment also. Mobile internet going down is crippling and causes panic. It puts one in a situation of constant fear of not being able to deliver a critical message or email on time," said Saumil Joshi, founder of a page dedicated to Vadodara on a social media website.

While people addicted to mobile messaging applications took to social media and micro-blogging websites to voice their frustrations, some even took the internet blockade in their stride. "Since the broadband connections were active, work routine is not affected. However, I am happy that it has saved a lot of time and increased productivity since mobile texting applications were down too," said Punit Jain another entrepreneur.