Kolkata: Bengal’s amateur radio operators, who have long been the state’s invisible first responders during cyclones and floods, are caught in a “nationality certificate” linked tangle that threatens to choke the supply of new HAM licensees, sparking alarm in disaster-management circles.
Under the Centre’s radio licensing regime, aspiring HAM radio operators must apply for the Amateur Station Operator’s Certificate (ASOC) examination through the Ministry of Communications’ Saral Sanchar portal.
The test, a mandatory gateway to secure a license, requires applicants to upload Aadhaar, PAN and birth documents.
Most crucially, if an applicant does not have a passport, the portal demands a “nationality certificate” in a prescribed format, attested by a gazetted officer.
And therein lies the bottleneck.
“No official, neither principals of government schools and colleges nor gazetted officers of the state or Centre, who are otherwise authorised to attest documents, is ready to sign such a nationality certificate. They are saying that Aadhaar, PAN cannot be judged as proof of nationality as there are a lot of controversies regarding it, so on what basis they would sign it,” Ambarish Nag Biswas, secretary of the West Bengal Radio Club (WBRC), told a news agency.
“Earlier, they used to sign after verifying original copies of Aadhaar, matriculation admit card, PAN or voter ID. Now they refuse.
This has paralysed the process, leaving many HAM radio aspirants unable to sit for the exam,” he said.
A senior official of the Ministry of Communications & IT explained that strict documentation was non-negotiable for getting a HAM Radio license, both for restricted grade, which is for low frequency and general grade, which is for high frequency, using the MORSE code.
“We can’t issue HAM radio licenses without proper verification. If someone has a passport, no nationality certificate is needed. But if they don’t, a gazetted officer of senior rank must sign a nationality certificate proforma after checking Aadhaar, PAN and other documents. It’s an old rule,” the senior official of the Kolkata Wireless Monitoring Organisation under the department of Telecommunications, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
“If an applicant has neither a passport nor a nationality certificate, how do we know if the person is Indian?” he asked.
According to Biswas, Bengal has around 12,000 licensed HAM operators, both restricted and general grade.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) described it as yet another instance of the Centre’s “hidden NRC drive”.
“Fear of NRC logic creeping into every corner of governance. As the officials might be wary that they will be held accountable due to this citizenship debate. Even HAM operators, who save lives during disasters, are now being forced to ‘prove’ citizenship afresh. It is harassment in the name of paperwork,” a senior TMC leader said.