கடலூர் மாவட்ட இணைய மடலிலிருந்து

நம்மிடையே இருக்கும் திறமைசாலிகளைப் பயன்படுத்துவது குறித்து நமது பொதுச் செயலரின் கருத்தை ஒட்டிய ஒரு பத்திரிகையின் செய்தியை கடலூர் மாவட்ட செயலர் தோழர் ஜயராமன் தனது கடல் அலையில் ( http://fntocuddalore.blogspot.com ) வெளியிட்டுள்ளார். அதில் ஒரு பகுதி இங்கே!

BSNL, the world's seventh largest telecom company, wholly owned by Government. BSNL ran as a Government department for 140 years before it was corporatized, without adequate preparation, by a notification in Sep 2000. There were some 350,000 people who had to be convinced to migrate from the assurance of a Government job as a department, to a corporate one. BSNL had some excellent engineering talent, but it was mired in bureaucratic ineptitude which shackled excellence. It took a Rajiv Gandhi to usher in a Sam Pitroda, who left a flourishing business in the US to bring up BSNL, for the princely salary of Rs 1 (which went unpaid). Years later, the Government turns to Sam Pitroda to look into the declining financial health of BSNL and to sort out issues relating to a 93 million line tender of $ 10b.
The tender of 93 m. lines was floated a few years ago and was stalled because of an appeal by the losers, of foul play. The appeal was maintainable only because it is wholly owned by Government and thus subject to a writ of mandamus. Meanwhile private sector companies, not bound by such legal niceties, grew. To now accuse BSNL of mismanagement when it was not allowed to grow, or to go in for an IPO which would have given it financial freedom to do so, smacks of undiluted hypocrisy.