The government has asked the mobile operators to give self certificates stating that radiations emitted by their towers are not harmful for human health, else face penalty as per prescribed norms.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) met operators last week and informed that any base transceiver station (BTS) for which self certificate was not submitted by November 15, 2010 shall be treated as non-compliant to the radiation norms and penalty shall be imposed.

BTS are radio transmitters mounted on either free-standing masts or on buildings. Radio signals are fed through cables to the antennas and then launched as radio waves into the area, or cell, around the base station.

To avoid health hazard from radiation of BTS, DoT had issued instructions to all Access Service Providers to conform to the limits of radiation as prescribed by International Commission on Non-ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) from time-to-time.

They were also asked to submit a self-certificate. The meeting was chaired by Minister of State for Communication and IT Sachin Pilot.

The self-certification details have to be submitted to respective Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM) Cells of DoT by November 15, 2010.

With thousands of telecom towers being erected in cities across the country, on people's houses, the radiations could cause probable health hazards.

The government had earlier said erring mobile service providers will have to pay a fine of Rs 5 lakh per mobile phone tower if it does not conform to internationally accepted limits of radiation.