CHENNAI: CPI state secretary M Veerapandian on Tuesday condemned the central government's Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) telecom company BSNL for what he described as negligence, after mobile services in Chennai and its surrounding areas remained disrupted entirely for the past three days.

In a statement, Veerapandian said the outage followed a fire at the central zone office on Anna Salai on December 20, raising serious questions about the public sector telecom operator's preparedness and response to crises. He said suspicions had arisen over whether the incident was part of a conspiracy favouring private service providers, as BSNL staff reportedly asked complaining users to shift to other players.

He said the prolonged disruption had affected emergency services, including access to medical care, police assistance and fire services in the backdrop of many government-related services predominantly using the PSU telecom operator. He also criticised BSNL officials for allegedly advising customers to switch to private operators rather than restoring services promptly.

He urged the Union Ministry of Communications to intervene and ensure uninterrupted telecom connectivity in Chennai and across Tamil Nadu.