'20 lakh pvt cellular service customers have shifted to BSNL'

When the evil of privatisation is looming large over BSNL, the public cellular service provider has been successfully attracting customers of private companies, auguring good days ahead, said Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) Employees Union General Secretary P Abhimanyu.

Abhimanyu said, “In the month of January alone, 20.70 lakh mobile phone customers earlier using other services, have opted for BSNL. The public sector company has added 23,000 mobile towers in the country recently and additional 3,000 towers will be installed soon. With this initiative, quality of service has been improved.”

Addressing the employees, during a meeting titled ‘Role of Employees in Service With a Smile,’ organised by BSNL Employees Union at Regional Telecom Training Centre (RTTC), at T K Layout, here on Thursday, Abhimanyu trained his guns on babus holding them responsible for company suffering losses only due to their negligence in administration.

Abhimanyu said, “As part of efforts to improve the quality of service, the employees have vowed to serve customers with a smile.”

The higher-ups have been claiming that the salary of employees is a major burden for the company.
The company has been spending Rs 15,000 crore per annum on salary component. At present, 2.25 lakh executives and non-executives are in service, with more than 1 lakh employees retired in the last 10 years. A decade ago, revenue generated was calculated at Rs 10,000 crore. Now, when there is a decline in employee strength, how can the salary be a burden to the company? he questioned.

Blaming a few politicians and higher officials, Abhimanyu alleged, “A few corrupt ministers and officers favou- red private players at the cost of the public sector company. Delay in purchase of latest equipment for the extension of service, also made the company suffer huge losses, he said.

Currently, when technologies are fast emerging, BSNL is yet to update with latest of equipment for the past six years. BSNL Employees Union Karnataka Region president B P Narayan, Assistant General Secretary M C Balakrishna, conveners B B Patil, Bhandary, Sudarshan, district unit president H Basavaraju and others were present.