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New Delhi: Telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Monday announced an extension in the validity period of more than 8 crore pre-paid connections until April 17 as well as credited talk time of Rs 10 in these accounts."Airtel has extended the pre-paid pack validity for over 80 million customers till April 17, 2020. All these customers will continue to get incoming calls on their Airtel mobile numbers even after the validity of their plan is exhausted," Airtel said in a statement. The benefits will be available to users in the next 48 hours, it said."Airtel will also credit an additional Rs 10 of talk time in the pre-paid accounts of all these 80 million customers to enable them to make calls or send SMS and therefore stay connected with their loved ones," the statement said.State-owned telecom operators BSNL and MTNL have also extended validity period of their prepaid mobile services till April 20 and offer Rs 10 additional talktime even after zero balance, to enable users, especially poor and underprivileged, to stay connected during the 21-day nationwide lockdown.An Airtel official said that the company will not recover Rs 10 credit given to all the pre-paid customers. "In this difficult hour of fighting off the threat of covid-19, Airtel is committed to ensuring that all people remain connected without any disruptions. And for this objective, it is critical to take care of the under-privileged daily wage earners of our country, whose lives have been disrupted due to the lock-down," Shashwat Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer, Bharti Airtel said.