Public Accounts Committee asks telecom service providers asked to provide details of rural area coverage

New Delhi: Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) headed by senior Congress MP KC Venugopal on Tuesday has asked private telecom operators to provide details of coverage of its services in rural areas, sources said.

While examining a CAG report that deals with revenue sharing by telecom service providers with government, the MPs in the multi-party panel opined that the state-run BSNL is the only service provider that is earnestly serving the rural areas of the country while the presence of others are practically nil.

Questions were raised why the private players are not eager to serve the rural areas at a time the BSNL is serving the areas. The MPs were of the view that despite its constraints, the BSNL is reaching out to their rural subscribers.

Sources said the panel asked private telecom operators to provide details of its coverage in rural India. The operators have been asked to provide details of its broadband services as well as call drop rate and action taken to address concerns among others.

Venugopal referred to complaints raised by BSNL officials about salaries, pension and working conditions and asked Department of Telecom officials to address them at the earliest.

Sources said the PAC also raised concerns over litigation related issues with telecom providers, as shortage of staff was leading to loss of revenue to the exchequer. Inadequate number of staff meant delay in deduction verification and assessments, they said.

The PAC was of the view that there is a need to have dedicated staff to deal with litigation. They said delay in litigation was benefitting the telecom operators and the government was losing money.

Sources said the PAC has asked the DoT to provide details of pending litigation and the follow-up action taken to close it.