Kashmir SMS curbs withdawn (Third Lead)

NEW DELHI/JAMMU - The union home ministry Friday said the order curbing SMS services in Jammu and Kashmir has been withdrawn.

“The telecom department has been asked to withdraw the order,” home ministry spokesman Onkar Kedia told IANS in New Delhi.

This was communicated to the chief minister’s office in Jammu late Friday afternoon, within half-an-hour of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah taking up the matter with the home ministry and the telecom department.

After talking to the concerned ministries in Delhi, which had banned SMS services of post-paid subscribers and restricted it to 10 per day for pre-paid subscribedrs and stopped the delivery of all SMSs from outside Jammu and Kashmir, Abdullah had told newsmen that he had taken up the matter with the ministries and hoped that the “ban would be lifted soon”.

“We were not taken into confidence,” Abdullah added.

The withdrawal of the curbs has come as a big relief for the 3.5 million mobile subscribers in Jammu and Kashmir.