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.