By Muntazir Abbas
NEW DELHI: Employee salaries of equipment vendors of state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) have got delayed with the stalling of the government project to connect uncovered villages, originally envisaged way back in September 2014.
Domestic firms Vihaan Networks Ltd. (VNL) and Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd. (HFCL), which had won gear supply contracts from BSNL for the ambitious telecom connectivity project, employ nearly 3,000 individuals directly, in addition to an indirect workforce of close to 5,000.
“For the last several months, we are getting our salaries delayed by almost two-to-three weeks with the company sitting idle on one of our important telecom connectivity programs, it had won more than a year ago from BSNL,” a company's source said, adding that wages for field manpower are being continually delayed.
HFCL founder Mahendra Nahata, however, in a statement, said that there has not been any delay in the payment of employee salaries.
BSNL had been nominated for the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)-driven contract for connecting the uncovered villages located at critical areas along the China border in Arunachal Pradesh as well as Assam.
Queries to the USOF administrator, BSNL and Vihaan did not elicit any response. BSNL itself had delayed the February salaries to a majority of its staff by almost three weeks.
Sources in the vendor-companies say they had taken bank credit, furnished bank guarantees (BG) as well as moved locally-made equipment to some sites, but there is no work at the project and hence no payments, adding to their financial burden.
In addition, these vendors had employed workforce to maintain already-deployed sites identified by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) under the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) initiative.
The Northeast-I connectivity program to deploy 2,817 towers in 4,119 villages in Arunachal Pradesh and two districts of Assam— Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao - had a deadline of December 2018. The initiative, a part of the Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan (CTDP), approved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi hasn't moved despite a recent reshuffling of government officials, including removal of then USOF administrator Sanjay Singh. Meanwhile, an official said that public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Delhi high court which is now in appeal before the Supreme Court.
In the absence of any court direction, the mobile connectivity initiative in the areas of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam continues to hang in the balance.
In January 2018, the USOF has inked a pact with BSNL to “immediately start” the mobile tower deployment under the Northeast-I initiative, but it did not release any advance as per the agreement that stated it to be paid within the two weeks.
“Payments to BSNL were stopped. The projects which should ideally go to BSNL were stationary and put to legal tangles so that they could not be completed,” Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association (TEMA) chairman NK Goyal told ETT.
The Northeast-I initiative was expected to boost BSNL’s revenue considerably, with the total project cost coming to Rs 2,200 crore, and despite telco’s reminders, the department’s fund allocation wing now headed by Ansuli Arya, is yet to give a nod.
On Saturday, the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) said that a “deliberate attempt” is being made to shut down BSNL.
