Distressed employees of BSNL write to PM Narendra Modi, call for revival

International News

Distressed employees of cash-strapped Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revive the company and make it a strong telecom operator. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the staff of the beleaguered company said, “We heard that the finance ministry is proposing the closure of BSNL, instead of its revival.”
“It is felt that those officers involved in the process may not get an opportunity to learn about the critical role played by BSNL in nation building and in implementing government schemes and projects,” general secretary of BSNL Union Sebastin. K said in the letter.
Stressing the role played by the company during critical situations, the employees have sought relief from the government. Sebastin said during the recent developments in Jammu & Kashmir, the government is fully dependent on BSNL landline and mobile for providing services to a few government functionaries and security forces in Kashmir valley, despite the company incurring huge losses.
No other operator is allowed to provide services due to security reasons. BSNL is providing telecom services in remote parts of the country and maintaining 17,000 to 18,000 exchanges, incurring Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 crore losses every year. Otherwise, these villages will be cut off.
The aggrieved employees said, “A wrong notion has been created by the government, management and the media that the main reason for BSNL loss is its employee cost.”

The letter said, BSNL provides direct employment to several people and most of the operations and maintenance activities are done by its own employees, whereas other operators outsource majority of their works...Read More

BSNL, MTNL suffering due to decisions taken under UPA: Telecom Minister

PTI9_2_2015_000214A

Economy policy

Refuting Congress' allegations of harming the interests of BSNL and MTNL, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha Thursday said the two public sector companies have been suffering due to decisions taken under the UPA regime.

"Congress must do its homework before making false and baseless allegations against our economic policies. Both the PSUs have been suffering due to decisions taken under UPA regime. They were forced pay huge amount of money for spectrum," Sinha told PTI.

Both BSNL and MTNL were asked to match the 3G and BWA spectrum price determined in auctions that were held in 2010 across all circles where they operate.

The price of spectrum swelled multi-fold unexpectedly at the end of the auctions and both the PSUs had to shell out money for pan-India spectrum while other players had the option to choose service area for 3G and Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum.Both the PSUs have been making losses since 2009-10.

Last week, opposition Congress accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of promoting firms of "his crony friends" at the expense of state-owned BSNL and MTNL.

Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala accused Modi of conspiring to close down public-sector telecom firms by not allowing them adequate finances to come out of the red.


 He alleged that BSNL's board has accepted three back-breaking suggestions that will destroy the future of 54,000 families -- of reducing retirement age from 60 to 58 years, voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) and blocking allocation of 4G spectrum...Read More

BSNL employees' union to stage a three-day rally starting April 5

Company News

The Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) employees’ union will stage a three-day rally starting April 5, demanding implementation of the Third Pay Revision with 15 per cent fitment, among other things.
This comes at a time when talks of lay-offs (to the tune of 35,000 people) are doing the rounds, amid a revival plan for the telco. The Digital Communications Commission (DCC) is yet to take a final call on the potential lay-off, said people in the know.
The Union will march from the BSNL office to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on all three days. Sources in the union said BSNL’s services would not be impacted during the rally.
In February, 100,000 BSNL employees had called for a three-day strike, which largely affected public banking networks and broadband connections in non-metro cities.
On Monday, the BSNL board met to discuss financial results, as well as issues such as employee settlement and revival plans, among others. A board member said, "BSNL employees are getting salaries and there are no overdues. All salaries have been cleared till March.”
The company had failed to pay salaries to employees in February. At present, the DoT is in the process of placing the revival plan before the Union Cabinet.

  It has sought the Election Commission’s permission to do so given the upcoming elections.