Villagers forced to pay for mobile phone lottery
imna news
The Ye Township Peace and Development Council (PDC) is forcing villagers to pay for CDMA phones, say local sources.
About 700 phones are allocated for Ye Township and Khaw Zar Sub-township, of which 400 will be given to government servants.
Residents who would like phones must apply for the remaining 300, which will be distributed based upon a random drawing. Each phone costs 1.8 million kyat.
According to a resident in Yinye village, the head of the Village PDC called a meeting on February 19th and explained that rights to new phones would be drawn by lot. Every resident was ordered to pay 3,000 to 10,000 kyat per house. Yinye village is home to 374 households.
Yinye villagers will then have to pay 300 kyat per minute, said a resident. “We paid money to buy the phone. And we pay it again if we use it – that is what the headman made business from us.”
According to a Ye resident who applied for the CDMA phone, applications were made two months ago. Some people applied for 3 or 4 phones in the hopes that they can resell multiple phones at a profit.
In Thaton district, Burmese government officers have not received phones though they made an application two months ago.
In 2007, the Mon State PDC sold mobile phones to authorities and officers of administrative offices. Most high school principles filled out applications to buy the phones, said a principle in Mon State. But not all townships have received phones.
http://www.monnews-imna.com/newsupdate.php?ID=1337
