The letter written by BSNL engineers to PM Modi, the appeal of the company ...

new Delhi: 

A union of engineers and accounting professionals of public sector telecom company BSNL has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene with the company's revival. He has said that there is no debt on BSNL and its market share is continuously increasing. In such a situation, the company should be re-organized. The company should have accountability of employees who are not doing their job properly. The All India Graduate Engineers and Telecom Officers Association (AIGETOA) has written a letter to the Prime Minister on June 18 regarding this. In the letter, the Prime Minister has requested the budget support to remove the company's cash crisis. It said that due to the cash crisis, the company's operations and services are being affected. The letter said,

Association said that a performance-based system should be created for employees in BSNL. This will be rewarded for better performing staff while the poor performing staff will be asked for answers.

BSNL's deficit for the last financial year is estimated to be Rs. 12000 crore

Public sector telecom companies are operating in losses since BSNL and MTNL 2010. At that time, these companies were asked to pay spectrum price in the auction for all the operations in their operations. MTNL operates in Delhi and Mumbai and BSNL operates in the remaining 20 telecom circles.

While MTNL is in constant deficit, BSNL recorded operating profit of Rs 672 crore in 2014-15, Rs 3,885 crore in 2015-16 and Rs 1,684 crore in 2016-17. The letter said that due to the market spoiling conditions, the entire telecom sector, including BSNL, came under pressure. Despite this, the market share of BSNL is increasing.

COMMENTS

Engineers and officials' association has said that despite tough conditions, BSNL is self-sufficient and there is no debt burden on it. This is the opposite of the other telecom companies which are burdened with heavy debt burden. Other companies in the telecom sector are under debt burden of banks and financial institutions. It has been said in the letter that BSNL has never been lagging behind in paying salaries to employees. This has happened in just a month but still the company has kept its own resources operating without any external support.