Employees of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), affiliated to Bharatiya Telecom Employees Union, an offshoot of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, demanded that dues to the 100% owned government telecom major from DOT be released immediately in order to put the company back on track.
The DOT owes around ₹30,000 crore under various heads, including ₹13,789 crore under Viability Gap Funding (VGF) for rural telephony, to BSNL.
“We have been demanding the release of funds since long and after much persuasion, the Telecom Minister had released ₹282 crore recently,” said V.V.S. Satyanarayana, president of BTEU, Visakhapatnam. The amount released pertains to services provided by BSNL to DOT.
“BSNL does not have funds for taking up development activities to compete with private players. If at least some part of the dues are released, we can take the competition to the doorstep of the private players,” he said.
“We have also urged the Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, to ask the authorities concerned in DoT for initiation of 4G services, as BSNL is ready with over 17,500 cell towers with 4G facilities, across India. The towers have been upgraded from 3G to 4G, and all is required is a nod. The private players have already gone big way in this spectrum, said Mr. Satyanarayana.
The union members also pointed out that the present marketing methods are poor and not in line with the contemporary techniques and this was one reason for BSNL making losses and losing out in the revenue and reach in the market to the private players.
The union members also alleged that things were turning out so bad that even salaries are being delayed.
