Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has advised the mobile phone subscribers to visit Customer Service Centers (CSC) of concerned mobile operator to get their SIM data corrected if there is any discrepancy in their antecedents. PTA has requested subscribers’ cooperation in streamlining of SIMs data to achieve target of 100% corrected data. In this regard, PTA has also directed cellular mobile operators to take all possible measures for the verifications of post and prepaid mobile connections of their subscribers within specified time period through “SIM information System 668”. 

         PTA introduced “SIM Information System 668” for the verification and correction of mobile SIMs data. Through this service subscriber can send his CNIC to 668 through SMS and in return he would receive detail of total SIMs against his CNIC alongwith name of the mobile company. In case there is any discrepancy, the user would visit CSC alongwith original CNIC to get the data corrected. The SIMs not corrected would be blocked after May 17, 2011. This is part of PTA efforts to block all illegal SIMs and clean the data of mobile users. 

      PTA has launched this service to facilitate mobile users and to get their data corrected. Without the cooperation of mobile subscribers the benefits of this service can not be achieved at desired level. PTA during last three years has launched number of campaigns through print and electronic media for the awareness of mobile users on this issue and it is still engaged in such activities. During the 3^rd phase of this campaign, mobile subscribers have shown great interest in having their SIM data corrected through 668 and operators are getting encouraging response. 
 

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has directed cellular mobile operators to take all possible measures for the verifications of SIMS of their subscribers within specified time period through “SIM information System 668”. In this regard, mobile operators are launching a massive campaign to rectify the inaccuracies in the data of mobile users’ antecedents. They are running awareness campaigns through media and will send SMS to the subscribers asking them to get their SIMs identity corrected from the Customer Service Centers (CSC) of concerned mobile operators. All unverified and unregistered SIMs shall be blocked by May 17, 2011.   

      PTA had introduced “SIM information System 668” for the verification of mobile SIMs. Through this service subscriber can send his CNIC to 668 through SMS and in return he would receive detail of total SIMs against his CNIC alongwith name of the mobile company. In case there is any discrepancy, the user would visit CSC to get the data corrected. If he does not get his SIM cleared it would be blocked by May 17, 2011. This is part of PTA efforts to block all illegal SIMs and clean the data of mobile users.

      It may be added that while continuing its campaign against unnamed and unregistered SIMs and during phase 1 and phase 2, PTA has blocked total 16.3 million unregistered SIMs. After introduction of “789 SIM Activation System” in February 2009, only non activated SIMs are available in the market. 3.8 million SIM activation requests have so far been rejected on the basis of incorrect information. New SIMs are activated through this online verification system from NADRA after identification of legitimate users by asking secret questions such as place of birth etc.

      PTA along with mobile operators also taking measures to resolve the issue of mobile handsets working on duplicate IMEI. PTA would follow the policy guidelines of the government on it.   

They’re not the only ones. In many parts of the world, including the United States, nuclear reactors are often located near the ocean, due to their requirement for abundant supplies of water for cooling purposes. And while tsunamis aren’t a threat everywhere, the sea can pose other challenges. Hurricanes, for example, can push walls of water ahead of them, like the storm surge that did most of the damage to New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina swept through in 2005. In fact, one U.S. nuclear plant has already been dealt a direct hit by a severe hurricane. In 1992, when Category 5 Hurricane Andrew hammered the Turkey Point power plant in southern Miami-Dade County, Fla., its nuclear reactors were unharmed despite extensive damage to other parts of the facility.

But scientists anticipate that in the future, sea level rise will cause hurricanes and their storm surges, as well as flooding caused by other types of storms, to be more severe than during the past few decades. In the wake of the Japanese crisis, which involved a more devastating tsunami than planners anticipated, nuclear analysts in the U.S. are now asking themselves how vulnerable coastal nuclear plants are to a comparable emergency.

“After the events in Japan, we took a hard look at whether our operating facilities are protected, based on current regulations and operating procedures,” says Roger Hannah, a senior public relations official with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Relying on models of expected flood levels and storm surges, along with “real-world experience with hurricanes,” the NRC believes all U.S. coastal nuclear facilities are already built to withstand the worst-case storm scenario, Hannah says. On March 23, the NRC also launched an additional two-step review of U.S. nuclear plants, aimed to last about three months.

“We have been working on a model and the mechanism to mobilise the fund through the ministry,” said Purushottam Ghimire, Joint Secretary and Chief of the Environment Division at the ministry.

Climate change is a vast subject and donors have been providing support in the various sectors like biodiversity, mountain ecosystem and agriculture. The ministry at present has projects worth more than $200 million at hand, with the potential to receive more funds in future as the country is listed in the Least Developed Countries, and the developed nations have to support as per the commitment in international negotiations on climate change held under United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

“There is a huge opportunity to receive funds to address climate change impacts but the problem lies in our capacity to use it properly,” added Ghimire.

The environment ministry has failed to reach out to local communities as, according to officials, it does not have any subordinate units in the local levels.

Efforts to establish a separate environment department, which the concerned stakeholders have been demanding for a long time, have gone down the drain. The ministry said the proposal for the establishment of a separate environment department and its branches in various parts of the country is pending at the Ministry of General Administration.

“We have been trying for more than five years but the other ministries like Ministry of Finance and General Administration are not convinced. However, in recent days they have shown positive signs. We hope to established the ministry’s subordinate units after an MoGA approval,” said Dr Ganesh Raj Joshi, Secretary at the ministry.

Though hundreds of students graduate from various universities in the country every year, there is no separate service group in the Public Service Commission that recruits environmental science graduates.

“There are competent graduates who can work in the environmental sector but the government has not recognised the manpower yet, as there is no separate body,” said Kedar Rijal, head of the Central Department of Environmental Science, Tribhuvan University.

If established, the environment ministry will have regional offices in at least five developmental regions in the beginning. “We will expand and ultimately, each district will get the government offices that will deal with environmental issues,” said the department head.