Man goes on hunger strike, gets service

Authorities of telecom company Vodafone had to respect and bow down before the flash indefinite hunger strike started by a new customer at its Bhayandar mini store on Sunday and activate his SIM card within half an hour.

According to Nalasopara resident Satish Mishra, he had to resort to the hunger strike after the company kept him running from pillar to post for nearly three weeks. Mishra had a Tata Docomo mobile phone and wanted to use Vodafone’s mobile portability service. He had applied for this on November 8 and they had assured him the service would be activated within five days.

He received another SMS on November  20 which confirmed that his application had been accepted and that a new SIM card would be issued to him.

However, Mishra’s Docomo service was disconnected the very next day before his Vodafone service was activated. He then began requesting the company repeatedly to activate his service as he was not reachable without a phone.

“I am assisting various directors [in Bollywood] now. They were all trying to contact me, but in vain. I went to many Vodafone outlets, after which I finally decided on going on an indefinite hunger strike outside a store,” he said.

Workers at the store first tried to convince him to stop his strike and discuss it with them, but he insisted that his service be activated first. They then activated the service in an hour to stop the public embarrassment.

The local police had also threatened to arrest him as he had not taken prior permission from the district collector.