Paswan connects to telecom employees — free phones

What this would also mean is more congestion on operating lines, more waiting lists for the common man and more burden on the national exchequer, at a time when the government is tom-tomming its intention of cutting costs of running governments.

“All serving, eligible regular employees of the DoT and DTS will be given concessional and rent free telephone facility from June,” an official statement issued by the DoT said today. The annoucement was made by the minister after a meeting with the Staff Federation of the two departments.

There would be no registration fee, rental or installation charges for the free telephones for departmental employees and would offer a bi-monthly 150 free call allowance, the statement said. Not only this, Paswan also employed bonus to all eligible employees of the DoT and DTS a 70-day bonus for the year.

This is not Paswan’s first committment to the employee unions under his ministry. Earlier, Paswan had promised to “regularise” 3.5 lakh extra-departmental employees in the Department of Posts and Telegraph (DoPT) to take them on government rolls. Paswan had announced this intention almost four months ago, but the Finance Ministry had run the plan to the ground. Following this, the postal unions had even threatened to strike work till the government agreed to this and other demands.

It may be recalled that when Sushma Swaraj was the Communications Minister in 1998, the postal department had struck work for nearly a week on these similar demands. However, the minister stood her ground and refused to put the burden of 3.5 lakh employees on to the Central government.

Even this time around, the buck will not stop at the telecom employees’ extra perks. New demands will emerge not only from postal employees but also from other government departments where employees may demand more perks related to the department where they work.

Paswan on the other hand feels that this move would be a big morale booster for the employees who are servicing more than 2.6 crore telephones in the network across the country.