GANGTOK: The Hills of Eastern Himalayas let out a collective sign of relief when their local hero made it through to the finals of a singing talent hunt show.
Thousands of people from Sikkim, Darjeeling Hills, Dooars and many Nepali-speaking areas of the country waited with bate breath when the results of Indian Idol on Sony TV were announced yesterday evening. All eyes and ears were focused on Prashant Tamang whose fates were to be decided through all-night voting from 9 pm on Friday till 8 am yesterday.
As the local singing sensation Prashant was declared “save” and he found a place in the final 13, the entire region broke out in simultaneous celebrations.
Supporters burst crackers and in Darjeeling, Prashant’s hometown, people came out of their houses and indulged in rivalry till late night.
These celebrations, however, did not come without its share of heartburns and technical hitches, and to many, conspiracy theories to displace Prashant and send him packing.
As people stayed up the entire night voting for Prashant through sms, mobile service providers came in the line of fire of irate customers whose votes did not get registered. Huge crowds from Darjeeling to Kalimpong took to the streets and vandalised and gheraoed offices of mobile service providers in protest of the undelivered sms. Normal life came to a stand still in Darjeeling town with almost bandh like situation. Hills people alleged their votes for Tamang were not being registered, especially with Reliance and BSNL connections, and claimed foulplay and conspiracy on the parts of the service providers to sabotage Prashant’s quest for the Idol title.
BSNL and Reliance subscribers alleged that said they were not receiving the delivery reports for their sms. The same was here in Gangtok as well, with delivery reports not being received.
However, both BSNL and Reliance subscribers received messages later during the day stating that the votes had been received and registered. Service providers said that it was a technical problem with Sony TV server.
In another development, Freza Singh of Gangtok today came to the Media with a peculiar compliant against the Reliance customer service employees located at Siliguri. According to Freza, on the night of June 8, which also happened to be the last piano round of the Indian idol, she sent a number of in favour of Prashant. She received the message ‘key word not found’ instead of the delivery report. She then immediately rang up the customer care number of Reliance. A male voice responded to her.
Freza alleges that when she inquires about the error message, the customer care executive asked her whether she was a Nepali. When Freza responded positively, the executive allegedly asked her why the Nepalese were voting only for a Nepali contestant. “Don’t you all have the sense that you should also vote for others as well,” he apparently told her.
The Sikkim Journalist Forum, formed recently to campaign for Prashant has strongly condemned the remarks of the customer care executive. “The duty of the call centre employee is to simply address the problems of the customers and nothing else,” said Kishore Moktan, one of the members of the forum. The Forum has also demanded an apology from the employee for his irresponsible statement.
The Forum has also submitted the entire details of the matter to Nikunj Bihari, Regional Manager of Reliance Telecom and has sought an earliest intervention in the matter with details of the employee who responded to Freza’s call that night
Thousands of people from Sikkim, Darjeeling Hills, Dooars and many Nepali-speaking areas of the country waited with bate breath when the results of Indian Idol on Sony TV were announced yesterday evening. All eyes and ears were focused on Prashant Tamang whose fates were to be decided through all-night voting from 9 pm on Friday till 8 am yesterday.
As the local singing sensation Prashant was declared “save” and he found a place in the final 13, the entire region broke out in simultaneous celebrations.
Supporters burst crackers and in Darjeeling, Prashant’s hometown, people came out of their houses and indulged in rivalry till late night.
These celebrations, however, did not come without its share of heartburns and technical hitches, and to many, conspiracy theories to displace Prashant and send him packing.
As people stayed up the entire night voting for Prashant through sms, mobile service providers came in the line of fire of irate customers whose votes did not get registered. Huge crowds from Darjeeling to Kalimpong took to the streets and vandalised and gheraoed offices of mobile service providers in protest of the undelivered sms. Normal life came to a stand still in Darjeeling town with almost bandh like situation. Hills people alleged their votes for Tamang were not being registered, especially with Reliance and BSNL connections, and claimed foulplay and conspiracy on the parts of the service providers to sabotage Prashant’s quest for the Idol title.
BSNL and Reliance subscribers alleged that said they were not receiving the delivery reports for their sms. The same was here in Gangtok as well, with delivery reports not being received.
However, both BSNL and Reliance subscribers received messages later during the day stating that the votes had been received and registered. Service providers said that it was a technical problem with Sony TV server.
In another development, Freza Singh of Gangtok today came to the Media with a peculiar compliant against the Reliance customer service employees located at Siliguri. According to Freza, on the night of June 8, which also happened to be the last piano round of the Indian idol, she sent a number of in favour of Prashant. She received the message ‘key word not found’ instead of the delivery report. She then immediately rang up the customer care number of Reliance. A male voice responded to her.Freza alleges that when she inquires about the error message, the customer care executive asked her whether she was a Nepali. When Freza responded positively, the executive allegedly asked her why the Nepalese were voting only for a Nepali contestant. “Don’t you all have the sense that you should also vote for others as well,” he apparently told her.
The Sikkim Journalist Forum, formed recently to campaign for Prashant has strongly condemned the remarks of the customer care executive. “The duty of the call centre employee is to simply address the problems of the customers and nothing else,” said Kishore Moktan, one of the members of the forum. The Forum has also demanded an apology from the employee for his irresponsible statement.
The Forum has also submitted the entire details of the matter to Nikunj Bihari, Regional Manager of Reliance Telecom and has sought an earliest intervention in the matter with details of the employee who responded to Freza’s call that night
