Panel set up to probe telecom 'sabotage'

Neena Haridas in New Delhi

Union Telecom Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has taken the recent disruption of telecom services "very seriously" and has appointed a special committee under senior deputy director general Dilip Sahay to investigate into the causes responsible for the disruption of services. The report will be submitted to the government on September 29.

The decision was taken by the minister at a meeting of the heads of telecom circles in Delhi on Friday. He said, "The govt has viewed the recent dislocation of telecom services seriously." He said the reports submitted by the chief general mangers will be examined thoroughly and stern action will be taken against those responsible.

Paswan also said the corporatisation of the dept of telecom services and dept of telecom operations is on schedule and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited will come into existence from October 1.

"There is no question of going back on this," he said. "It is a stated policy of the govt and no one can question it. But the govt is fully sensitive to the legitimate concerns of the employees who will be part of the new corporate entity and has discussed the issues with all federations and staff unions."

He said all these federations have been involved at various levels of discussion including the group of ministers and their major issues relating to pension, job security, and financial viability have been resolved. Some of the minor aspects related to these issues on which the federations have given fresh proposals are receiving highest consideration and therefore, they need not have any apprehensions.

He said that various initiatives have been taken to benefit the employees. "But it is also up to them to maintain the network and work with discipline and dedication to bring a good image to the department.

"The recent irresponsible behaviour by a section of the employees has caused me deep pain. I feel the heads of the telecom circles should exercise proper administrative control over those subordinate to them, who are manning the network. The ministry and the govt will not tolerate this kind of behaviour and inconvenience being caused over such small issues," Paswan said.

Moving away from the topic of strike, Paswan said that the ministry has decided to give 5 per cent commission to marketing agents of virtual calling cards. These are prepaid cards to make local and STD calls. He said against the total target of 5.79 million new telephone connections for the year 2000-20001, 1.226 million connections have been achieved till August 2000 -- which is about 21.2 per cent of the target.

He said all efforts are being made to increase tele-density from the current 3.03 per cent to 7 per cent by 2002, and to 15 per cent by 2010. He said no compromise will be made on the allotted targets to private operators on village public telephones.

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