Govt dials surrender, telephones ring again

Today8217;s peace with agitating telecom employees was reached after the Government came up with a face-saving formula 8212; a fresh Department of Telecom Operations DTO was carved out from the Department of Telecom Services DTS. The DTO will be headed by an ITS officer.

As a result of today8217;s compromise, DTS secretary Vinod Vaish will remain, though the telecom unions wanted him removed. Around seven months ago, when Vaish was first appointed DTS secretary at that time, the DTS was created by bifurcating the DoT, and the unions had protested, Vaish8217;s transfer orders were revoked, and he remained in his job as special secretary in the environment ministry. P S Saran, an ITS cadre official, was then appointed first secretary of the DTS. When Saran retired on May 31, Vaish was again selected for the DTS job.

Now, the Telecom Department which already had two wings 8212; the Department of Telecommunications DoT which was responsible for the policy-framing functions and the DTS which would look after the telecom operations 8212; will now have a third department DTO.

There will now be three secretaries in the telecom ministry 8212; one for the DoT, one for the DTS IAS officials and one for the DTO an ITS official. All this at a time when there is talk of downsizing the government.

It is unclear, however, as to what would be the functions of the DTS and its secretary.

According to sources in the telecom department, all PSUs like Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd MTNL, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd VSNL, Telecom Consultants India Ltd TCIL, ITI and Hindustan Teleprinters Ltd HTL will now report to the DTS while DTO will perform the functions of running the telecom networks in the country. Apart from this, the DTS will formulate the strategy for corporatising the department by October, the new deadline decided by the government.

Addressing newspersons to announce today8217;s decision, Paswan said: 8220;The Cabinet Secretary will decide the distribution of work functions between the two departments. The appointment of the new secretary will also be done after the Prime Minister returns from his foreign tour.8221;

Indian Telecom Services Association ITSF president Ashok Kumar Sinha told newspersons that the association had decided to call off the 8220;work to rule8221; agitation with immediate effect and a decision on calling off the June 28 strike would be taken tomorrow at a general body meeting of the federation. The June 28 strike call had been given by the three lakh junior telecom staff against the move to corporatise the department.

Paswan announced that the government has set up a Group of Ministers GoM headed by Paswan and consisting of Yashwant Sinha, HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, Industries and Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran and the Labour Minister to resolve issues arising out of employees salaries and pensions and other related labour issues. This Group would submit its report by August 15.

Paswan also met junior staff unions yesterday and set up an internal committee in the telecom department headed by Member Finance Akhilesh Prasad, to resolve any further problems of employees. Following this, Paswan said he hoped the June 28 strike would be called off.