NEW DELHI: The pre-call COVID-19 awareness messages have played a critical role in fight against the pandemic, and TRAI, which received few complaints against these messages, has held that the announcement has been made in public interest, Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.
The coronavirus-related awareness messages aimed at leveraging pre-caller tunes for maximum public outreach is considered “indispensable” in the fight against COVID-19, and the ministry would consider removing this message at “appropriate time”, Minister of State for Communications and IT, Sanjay Dhotre said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.
He was replying to a question on whether COVID-19 awareness messages – that are played before a phone call – are creating inconvenience to mobile users or have outlined their relevance.
“TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has received few complaints/representations against these messages. However, TRAI has stated that pre-call announcement has been made in public interest…The ministry would consider removing this message at appropriate time,” Dhotre said.
The outbreak of COVID-19 in December 2019 took the world by surprise, and people across the country had to be reached out immediately with messages of Do’s and Don’ts to enable breaking the chain of transmission, he said.
The idea of using pre-caller tunes for outreach at the shortest possible time was conceived at the time of outbreak of COVID-19, keeping in view the larger public interest, and the message disseminated via the caller tune has, since then, changed several times based on changed circumstances and requirements, he said.
“The pre-caller tune has played a critical role in reaching important messages timely across the length and breadth of the country… As such it is considered indispensable in the fight against COVID-19,” Dhotre said. (AGENCIES)
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