The Hindu : Mahajan pulls up basic phone firms

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 17, 2002

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Mahajan pulls up basic phone firms

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MARCH 16 . Perturbed over the "insensitivity" displayed by private basic phone companies in meeting their social obligations, the Communications Minister, Pramod Mahajan, today upbraided for their slow pace in providing village public telephones (VPTs).

In a review meeting , he told them that while the Government did not wish to be harsh, their tardiness might leave it with no option but to cancel the licences.

The phone companies had done little despite protestations that it would mend its ways at the last review a couple of months ago, it was said.

Out of the 98,000 VPTs promised by private service providers, only 639 were installed till December 1. The companies had assured the Government that all villages in Andhra Pradesh (Tatas), Gujarat (Reliance) and Punjab (HFCL) would be covered by September 1998 and all Maharashtra villages a year later.

Worse, after being upbraided by Mr. Mahajan on January 3, the pace appears to have remained the same. Only 153 additional VPTs had been installed so far.

Mr. Mahajan's approach does not appear to be different from that of his predecessor, Ram Vilas Paswan, who had similarly cajoled and threatened the private phone companies. But at least he has extracted fresh roll-out commitments from them. Most companies have promised to meet their voluntarily-made commitments by year-end.

With the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) having received Rs. 1 crore as compensation for rural telephony ( Rs. 1,500 crores might accrue from the universal social obligation fund) for the year 2002-03, it has become more crucial for the companies to meet their obligations or suggest an acceptable option such as allowing BSNL to do the work on their behalf.

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