Telecom operators today said that only increased awareness among people about the "Do Not Call" (DNC) registry can check the menace of unsolicited calls and SMSes on mobile phones.

Telecom Secretary P J Thomas held an hour-long meeting with operators in the wake of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee recently getting a call from a telemarketing company that offered him a housing loan.

The operators expressed helplessness in checking the menace and said the government must run an awareness campaign, on the same scale as its polio eradication programme, to ensure that users register with the DNC to avoid getting unwanted calls.

As of now, only 11 per cent of users are registered with the DNC registry and that is why more and more users are getting pesky calls.

The meeting was attended by all leading telecom operators like Airtel, Vodafone, Tata and RCom and the respective lobbies for GSM and CDMA players.

Some of the operators also suggested that unregistered telemarketing companies should be barred and a heavy penalty should be imposed on them in case of a breach of terms and conditions.