Over 70 percent people of Taplejung district have been deprived of telephone services, as the service centers of most Village Development Committees (VDCs) closed three years back and have not reopened citing security problems.

Of the 50 VDCs’ in the district, 48 are still deprived of the services, the state run the Rising Nepal reported.

The telecommunication office cited security as the main problem for resuming the services but the locals have blamed the telecom of not initiating any steps to restore the services.

The paper quoted Ram Prasad Palunga, president of the District Development Committee, as saying that only the people in the district headquarters were using the services while people from other villages were compelled to trek for up to three days to use the services.

Khagendra Basnet, chief of the telecommunication office at the district headquarters said that the office was preparing to install wireless phone services in the district so that the people would not have to depend on the landlines.

A total of 13,5540 people are living in the district.