3 min readMumbaiMay 4, 2022 03:20 AM IST
First published on: May 3, 2022 at 03:41 PM IST
Shiv Sena MP from South Mumbai and former Union minister Arvind Sawant has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to revive Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and its subsidiary Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL).
In his letter to PM Modi, Sawant, who heads a trade union of MTNL workers, said: “I feel very sorry to say that while imposing the VRS (voluntary retirement scheme); as if that was the only solution for revival; the ministry or so-called consultants never thought as to how both the companies will run in future with the remaining number of employees. Somehow BSNL is recovering but not MTNL.‘’
The MTNL needs a huge amount to the tune of Rs 35,000 crore for survival, Sawant said and appealed to the Union government to monetise assets and till then requested it to finance the purchase of new equipment like fiber optic cables and installation of new cell towers. This will not only help the MTNL to recover from the present situation but will also help to protect against further deterioration of its assets, the letter said.
The letter mentions that in 2008, the MTNL had a profit to the tune of Rs 208 crore but to grant the 3G network licence, the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government compelled it to pay Rs 10,000 crore as a licence fee, equivalent to that of the BSNL. This was unjustified, Sawant said, as the MTNL was catering to only Mumbai and Delhi circles. Another unjustified decision, he said, was that the government did not finance this licence free and asked the MTNL to raise the money by borrowing from the market. Due to this, the MTNL went into losses and has not recovered since then, Sawant said.
He said that only 1,200 employees work for the MTNL which serves municipal corporation areas of Mumbai, Thane, Meera-Bhayandar, Navi Mumbai, Panvel and Uran as the management thought of using contract workers for the maintenance of landlines. He asked how untrained people can repair and maintain landlines and said that this experiment failed and thousands of lines lay unattended for months.
In the same letter, Sawant said that the MTNL is illegally and unofficially using employees’ money from the credit society. For a few months, the MTNL, after deducting the subscription and recovering the loan amount, is not depositing money to the credit of the society and using it without any consent, either from the members or from the society without interest, he said. Though it is illegal, the employees have not made any hue and cry and protected the image of the MTNL, he added.
Sawant was a minister in the Modi cabinet and resigned when Shiv Sena decided to walk out after they formed the government in Maharashtra with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress.
Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant (ANI Photo) 
Share
