Strengthen BSNL, MTNL, Says Peoples’ Commission

Chennai: People’s Commission on Public Sector and Services, an organization comprising academics, jurists, erstwhile administrators, trade unionists and social activists, called upon the Union Government to strengthen BSNL and MTNL and regulate private telecom operators to safeguard public interest.

In a statement on Thursday, the commission expressed concern over the large-scale asset monetisation exercise of the Union Government, which had been reportedly pressurizing both BSNL and MTNL to alienate their lands to private companies to raise fiscal resources.

BSNL/MTNL's lands were originally acquired under the erstwhile land acquisition legislation on the premise that such acquisition was for a "public purpose" and hence cannot be alienated in any manner to a private entity, the commission said.

It also objected to the allegation that BSNL was also being pressurized to lease out thousands of its towers and long stretches of its fibre optic network to its competitors on terms not necessarily advantageous to itself.

BSNL had 67,340 towers nationwide at the end of March and had leased out 13,146 towers to private telecom operators - 8363 to Reliance Jio, 2779 to Bharati Airtel and 1782 to Vodafone Idea, it said, adding that forcing BSNL to lease out its towers to its competitors amounts to a serious impropriety on the part of the government.

The commission questioned why private telecom service providers were being preferred over BSNL in extending connectivity to remote areas in the country, particularly strategic areas like Ladakh, and the efforts of the government to weaken BSNL/MTNL and grant undue favour to private telecom companies.

It pointed out that while private telecom operators together owed about Rs 5 lakh crore to Public Sector Banks (PSBs), the debt of BSNL was hardly Rs 15000 crore. In other words, the private telecom operators earned profits not only at the cost of BSNL but also at the cost of the PSU banks, it said.

The commission urged the union government to regulate profiteering private telecom service providers and strengthen BSNL/MTNL and other public sector telecom institutions through a holistic revival plan by providing direct budgetary support.

Besides calling for the revoking of the plan to monetize BSNL/MTNL lands, towers and so on, the commission wanted the strengthening of the R&D capabilities of BSNL/MTNL and other public sector telecom institutions so as to enable the country to achieve self-reliance.

Another demand was the setting up an independent telecom ombudsman to protect the interests of the customers as envisaged in the National Telecom Policy of 2018.