The Hindu : New Delhi News : Pitroda urged to speed up revival of BSNL

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Friday, Feb 12, 2010
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Pitroda urged to speed up revival of BSNL

Sandeep Joshi

Successive managements blamed for mess
Inclusion of eminent people urged to avoid ruin

NEW DELHI: Concerned over deterioration in the financial health of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, executives of the State-owned telecom company have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Adviser Sam Pitroda calling for induction of leading technocrats and professionals into the BSNL board of directors to speed up its revival. Mr. Pitroda heads a committee constituted by the Prime Minister to help revive BSNL and draw a road map for its future.

Blaming successive BSNL managements for the financial mess that has resulted in the telecom giant losing its foothold in the Indian market and incurring huge losses, the executives have called for inclusion of eminent people of integrity like unique identity project head Nandan Nilekani and Delhi Metro railway head E. Sreedharan in the BSNL board to save the company from going bankrupt.

Alleging a “nexus” between the BSNL management and political leaders for the deteriorating financial health of the undertaking, BSNL Executive Association general secretary G. L. Jogi said the need of the hour is a total revamp of the BSNL management and appointment of business luminaries who can steer the telecom giant to new heights.

“The Indian Telecom Service (ITS)-controlled management of BSNL is today totally exposed … [its] contribution in building a sturdy research and design and introducing innovative culture has been woefully wanting. The past five years have seen them intensely and single-mindedly entangled in a debate exclusively aimed at ensuring their personal foolproof job security rather than focusing on drafting key policies and coming out with strategies and plans of action to steer BSNL out of the deep turbulent waters that it is forced into at the moment,” he said.The Association has urged Mr. Pitroda to select a stalwart to head BSNL who would overcome political interference and be given total freedom to choose his board of directors. The Association has also approached the Public Services Enterprise Board asking it to replace present BSNL leadership by eminent professionals from outside with suitable experience.

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