Page 9 - TELEWAVE JUNE-2016
P. 9
administration is trying to take back the assets of BSNL on the pretext of opening TERM Cell / CCA Offices and Training Centers which is contrary to the Govt. of India Orders. Hence DoT should immediately transfer the Assets to BSNL as per Govt. of India Order. 19. Land, building, A&P, Cable, experienced workforce are our assets. All these assets are to be gainfully deployed to fetch additional revenue. There are vacant lands and large vacant space in buildings. These spaces are to be commercially exploited to get hundreds of crores additional revenue every year. Formation of special task force for this purpose will speed up to achieve the objective. Commercial hoardings in CSCs and other BSNL buildings, commercial advertisement in the telephone bills will also fetch additional revenue. 20. Recently Government has taken a decision to create BSNLs own Tower subsidiary Company for its tower business. The cabinet, in its meeting held on 05.08.2015 has given the “In-principle” approval to the proposal for hiving off the telecom tower infrastructure of BSNL into a separate subsidiary company which will be fully owned by BSNL. Consequent to approval, DoT constituted an inter-ministerial group consisting of representatives of DPE, DoP PW and DEA for working out the capital structure and organizational structure of the new company after market valuation of its tower assets holding for consideration of the Union Cabinet. The Inter Ministerial Group has now submitted its report to Govt. for consideration. 21. BSNL Management has taken up the matter with DoT for modification in payment of pension contribution from highest of IDA pay scale to the actual basic pay from BSNL. As the case was referred to DoP&PW and DoP&T by DoT and DoT submitted that Ministry of Finance (Dept. of Expenditure) has not concurred the above proposal. Hence the Pension contribution in respect of absorbed BSNL employees are to be recovered as per the previous methodology. 22. Merger of BSNL & MTNL: In the UPA Government the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) recommended to provide Pension to MTNL employees under Rule-37A., after 3rd PRC, the pay scales of BSNL & MTNL employees will be made equal which has got approval of Cabinet and orders are issued. It is also proposed that as per synergy and PAN INDIA presence to review both the PSUs, EGoM has also suggested merger of BSNL & MTNL. EGoM’s recommendations are yet to be send to Cabinet for approval. Meanwhile some study groups were formed in DoT to examine the issues related to financial matters, technical matters and HR issues. We have given our views in this regard and demand that before the merger of BSNL and MTNL these issues needs settlement to avoid complications. 23. Despite having a definite edge over the Private Operators in many areas, BSNL has some weaknesses too. The main weakness lies in its structure itself i.e. the Management believes and possesses a work culture which does not suit the need of the hour. There is no denial that the dependency on other Departments/ Organizations like Planning Commission, Department of Electronics, Department of Expenditure, Department of Telecommunications and Department of Public Enterprises delays the decisions. BSNL has to be given the freedom to decide its own issues. After all, it is the BSNL Management which is responsible and accountable to the Public whereas others are not. In this background, BSNL needs to be given the full autonomy in decision making both on functional and financial front. In the process of decision making, innovative ideas and bold initiatives need not be distrusted and overcome by the age old DoT systems and procedures of ensuring safety and propriety. In the modern management concept, it is also necessary to decentralize the administrative and financial powers for not only reducing the burden on the top management but also to give adequate freedom to the lower formations. Unfortunately, a typical DoT work culture is still continuing in BSNL, which tends to keep the powers centralized and prevents any move in positive direction. The BSNL again suffers most in the absence of a sense of team spirit. The conviction of team leaders to live in isolation keeps them away from the realities. In the challenging current business scenario with highly competitive market conditions and customer expectations in terms of quality of service, BSNL will have to gear up itself to improve its performance in achieving excellent growth in all spheres. Accordingly, BSNL needs to take immediate steps to motivate its works force, their skills and profile through trainings, seminars, moral education and attractive incentive schemes etc. so that it meets the challenges and increases its profitability in future and also prevents the brain drain. 24. As a service association we cannot remain silent spectator to the problems of our cadres. As already stated, our members are frustrated due to non-settlement of the following pending grievances: TELEWAVE 9 JUNE-2016