Wednesday July 7, 2010
On Wednesday, the policy making arm of DoT, Telecom Commission will meet to review the Sam Pitroda Committee report on reconstruction of BSNL, which will advise on splitting of the top most post at the Public Sector Undertaking, allowing 30 per cent disinvestment and trimming the workforce. DOT said in a statement, the full Telecom Commission Meeting to consider the recommendation of the Pitroda Committee is scheduled to be held on 7th July.
BSNL CMD Kuldeep Goyal, who is retiring next month, A Raja is defying the Pitroda panel’s suggestions by keeping silent in choosing the BSNL successor. The Pitroda panel is advising to split the post of CMD into Managing Director and Chairman. He further added, “No interviews were held for the post of CMD, BSNL on June 8.”
To retrieve the telecom PSU Dr. Manmohan Singh had constituted a committee headed by Sam Pitroda to look into operations and financial of BSNL’s. The telecom commission is likely to impose financial penalty on the telcos. Within a year of 50 per cent of the districts within three years of getting spectrum as per the norms laid down telcos had to cover at least 10 per cent of each district headquarter in a circle.
The government asked eleven telecom companies, including Vodafone, Idea and Tatas, who were provided licenses in 2006-2008, to submit a progress report on their commercial launches of mobile services; this is to ensure that scarce spectrum is not kept idle. The DoT (Department of Telecom), on instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office, has sent out a letter seeking a progress report from all these eleven telecom operators, who were provided with licenses in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
