Govt to fine flouters of radiation norms

Mobile service providers will have to pay a fine of Rs5 lakh per mobile phone tower from November if they do not conform to internationally accepted limits of radiation, government told Lok Sabha on Monday.

“To avoid health hazards from mobile towers radiations, the telecom department has issued instructions to all access service providers to conform to the limits of radiation as prescribed by the International Commission on Non-ionising Radiation Protection from time-to-time,” MoS for communications Sachin Pilot said.

Pilot said the government had asked service providers to have all the base transreceiver stations self-certified and meet radiation norms. The self-certification details have to be submitted to the respective telecom enforcement resource and monitoring cells of the telecom department by November 15, Pilot said.

“If a site fails to meet the electromagnetic radiation criterion, a penalty of Rs5 lakh shall be levied per base transreceiver station per service provider,” he said.