 Hello everyone, welcome to NewsClick. BSNL, one of the largest PSUs in India, is facing severe crisis now. NDA governments' neoliberal policies are affecting this company and its employees. Today we have with us Mr. C.Cellappa, the State President and the National Deputy General Secretary of BSNL Employees Union, to discuss about this crisis. Welcome sir. First time in BSNL's 18 year history, the company is not able to provide salary to about more than one-and-a-half employees. So what leads to this crisis? I would like to say that the Modi government has followed the pro-corporate policy that affects the public sector BSNL. For the past 18 years, BSNL could make payment to their own employees without any hindrance at all. But now BSNL is facing a financial crisis, there is a crunch, financial crunch I can say. Why the financial crunch has come? It is the question. Because in the telecom sector, only four big telecom providers are there. One is BSNL, it's a public sector company, another one is Reliance Geo, another one is Airtel, another one is Vodafone. Up to 2014, BSNL was earning profit. From 2016, BSNL went on loss. Not only BSNL, Airtel went on loss. Vodafone went on loss. Why? It is because the entry of Reliance Geo. One company, one private company, Reliance Geo has entered and they have actually swallowed the subscribers with the pattern eyes of Modi government. They got all support from the Modi government. I can say it's a chronic capitalism because they got a nexus between the government, Modi government and Reliance Geo. They got all concessions. That is why BSNL went on loss for the past five years. It amounted to 31,000 crores in the past five years. Our earning has come down. Not only BSNL has come down, Vodafone came down. I'm sorry, Airtel also came down. So this is the crisis we are facing. The crisis is made by the because of the government policy. They are following the pro corporate policy. That is why we are facing this crisis. We are fighting with the government policies and we are trying to improve BSNL in India. So is this crisis made by just this NDA government or the previous UPI government's policies also leads to this crisis? Definitely I can say UPI government also played their role. But their role is less when comparing this India government. So for an example, I can quote one or two examples. Reliance Geo, they have entered in India in 2016 on September. They told when they entered, their advertisement came in the newspapers and TV channels. Who the ambassador was, you know, it is our Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi. He told us to use Reliance Geo products. So naturally people will think that Reliance Geo will get the support of the Modi government. BSNL is the NDA government's company, but they did not give any advertisement to BSNL. Number one. Number two, not only giving advertisement. Number two, Reliance Geo introduced the entry offer as a free car, as a free, everything free. They have entered. They say that it's a welcome offer. There is a government order, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. They say that you can give free only for 90 days, three months. So October, November, December 2016, it is over. Again, as a new year offer, Reliance Geo introduced again a free offer, another three months. The free means government will lose money because when the private operators they are working, they are selling their product, means they have to pay the license fees to the government and what are the revenue they get, they have to share with the government. When it is free means government will not get. So it is against the law. Then Troy, one devotee secretary, Mr. J S Deepak Mishra, wrote to Troy Chairman stating that it is complete violation what Reliance Geo is doing. So we have to take action. Otherwise government will lose money also. That file went and the file came back. You will not believe that J S Deepak Mishra, the devotee secretary who wrote the letter was transferred. So the hurdle was removed, another secretary was appointed, then naturally they gave another three months free. In terms of we can say it's called a predatory pricing. You know I can tell you an example, this pen is 10 rupees. If I sell it for 5 rupees it is called predatory pricing. It is the predatory pricing will kill the opponents. So in the world itself people will not accept predatory pricing. But in India Reliance Geo did predatory pricing not only predatory pricing, they did no cost pricing also. So naturally as a human psychology when it is free people will go for it. So they grab the subscribers from in the country. They get more. And number two they got an advantages from the government also. Number two they asked they approached the government. They said Reliance Geo told the prime minister office that they have to reduce the inter usage charges. That inter usage charges means if any network I am working I am using BSNL network you are using Reliance Geo. You are calling me then you Reliance Geo has to pay 14 paisa per minute to BSNL. This is inter usage charges. It's a vice versa also. But Reliance Geo entered late so their subscriber base is less. So they have to pay more IUC charges. So they went to government. You reduce it. Yartal earlier went government did not agree. Vodafone earlier went government did not agree. But Reliance Geo went now the government agreed to that. They have reduced from 14 paisa to 6 paisa per minute. At a stroke government lost 5000 crores. At a stroke Reliance Geo got the total benefit. So that is why Reliance Geo could grab the subscribers throughout the country. In the March 2019 this Reliance Geo they have added one crore subscriber in one month. And 76 crores 76 lakhs of connections from Vodafone 26 lakhs of connections from Yartal. And in this situation BSNL gave 3.5 lakh 3.5 lakhs connection as a positive one number one. Number two why BSNL is suffering. The suffering is due to the non expansion and especially the government did not allot 4G spectrum to the BSNL. Three companies they are having 4G spectrum. In the competition means there will be equal footing. Everybody says that in the privatization if you say equal footing should be there where is the question of equal footing for BSNL. BSNL still now we have not been allotted 4G spectrum at all. Reliance Geo is having Yartal is having Vodafone is having they are giving the services to the public but we cannot give the service to the public. As a union we have demanded this allotment of 4G spectrum to BSNL we have demanded with the government. We went on strike for three times. Every time the telecom minister will give assurance that 4G spectrum will be allotted to you. They have not allotted. On February 2018 they assured us it will be given within a month's time 4G spectrum they did not give. Again we gave a strike notice on December 3rd indefinite strike throughout the country from Jammu Kashmir to Kanyakumari. We gave a call. Minister invited us all the top most bureaucrats were there in front of them. They gave it in writing that they will give 4G spectrum to BSNL and in the parliament they will say that they will give if anybody raise a question they will say that yes we are going to give 4G spectrum to BSNL but still we are lacking behind. So non allotment of 4G spectrum is we could not expand our business. And one more pathetic condition the government is crippling us. Number one reliance geo they have invested 1,50,000 crore rupees out of which they got bank loan 1.25 lakh crores that's from the nationalized bank they got loan. So only 25,000 crores they have invested they have started the business. Today I am talking about 2016 1.5 lakh crore. Today reliance geo's debt is 2 lakh crores. And what about Vodafan 1 lakh 20,000 crores Yatel 1 lakh 13,000 crores these huge debts are there from the nationalized banks if they they did not pay means bank will go bankrupt bad debts will increase. But BSNL is having only a loan of 10,000 crores. So for the expansion of BSNL we ask the government you give bank loan to us also for that we need a letter of comfort that government has to give it to us 20,000 crores or 30,000 crores as a bank loan we would like to get but government did not give letter of comfort to us at all. Our asset BSNL asset as per the market value it is 4 lakh crores it is our asset in our corporate office we have got a building our own building they have assessed is the one building cost about 2,500 crores. So we have got an asset and we got a vacant land also so we asked BSNL management ask the government we have got vacant lands are there we can monetize it you please permit us they asked they wrote a letter in 2018 after the board decision and they are our assessment is 1 lakh crore worth of vacant land is there it went to government government returned the file they say that the land is not in the name of BSNL it is in the name of department of telecom so we are deprived of everything the crisis created by the BSNL is the reason for non-payment of salary but regular employees their salary was delayed in february and paid on march 15th and every month they say that this month you will get salary this month you will get salary like that every month they are saying our employees are anxious after 20th whether they will get this salary for this month every time 20th or 22nd government will say no no you'll get salary this month but 1 lakh contract libraries are working here there is no recruitment from 1984 in BSNL very few cadets very few junior telecom officer very few they have recruited for the past 25 years hardly about 5000 or 10 000 people will be recruited so there is no recruitment at all there are a number of vacancies are there so they are recruiting contract libraries and they have got b graduates working as a contract liberator in BSNL their salary is maximum 10000 minimum is 6000 throughout the country they are working but for the past five months they did not pay to the contract libraries this is the crisis number one and number two government is not allotting money BSNL is having 1 lakh towers throughout the country in Tamil Nadu alone we have got more than 6000 towers are with us I am sorry 8000 towers are with us 550 towers have been disconnected now due to non-payment of electricity bill the what is the total amount of the electricity bill it hardly about 10 lakh rupees if you pay 10 lakh rupees it will run but now they have disconnected and we have been asked to buy diesel to run the towers and for the for purchasing diesel also they are not allotting money so in front of public our service is affected and they are they are grumbling about the BSNL service it is the major reason because of the government policy at all policy as a BSNL employees union we have mobilized all all unions and executive associations also we have we went on strike from February 18th to 28th demanding all these things but the new new they say that only after the new government comes it will be revived it will be revived and they say that there are so many rumors are coming revival plan will be there and number one point they said they will close BSNL it is not possible to close BSNL number two they said to revive BSNL they want to cut size the employees strength at the moment 1.75 lakh regular employees are working they want to cut size they want to introduce two schemes number one scheme is reducing retirement age from 60 to 58 if it is done this year 35,000 employees will go at win one stroke and they wanted to introduce VRS system also Volta Retirement Scheme they say that they want to make healthy BSNL our argument is if they cut size the employees strength and make it healthy and they wanted to sell it to the private that is the government policy so we are opposing VRS and we are opposing reducing our 58 days also in this situation we are now we are fighting with the government how do you think the second term of NDA government is going to affect the company I think it will affect 100% because there is a plan by the government they wanted to sell BSNL to Reliance Geo how they will sell number one they will reduce the work strength number two as a strategic partner they will sell we have got an example in India for an example one company was there one public sector company was there Videsh Sanchar Niham Limited BSNL it was in Chennai also 26% of shares have been sold to Tata Tata bought it as a strategic partner 1440 crores rupees he gave it to the government and he bought it within few years he sold his all shares 50% of the shares he sold on a stroke 6000 crores so four times he got benefited after after a few years slowly slowly they sold 100% shares now in the public sector limited companies BSNL is not there Tata telecom service is there like that they wanted to give a BSNL as a strategic partner to Geo Geo will be introduced as a strategic partner to BSNL they will come and they will take over this is the government's game plan we want to oppose it we want to oppose it because this BSNL is a public asset it's an Indian public asset it has been formed more than 100 years and it has got assets throughout the country and it's a major as you said it's a major public sector in India these public sectors should be saved once Nehru told public sectors are like temples and and now the government says public sector should be diminished this is the difference so we are fighting to save BSNL the public perception about BSNL services that it's quite bad comparing to other networks if the BSNL employee is trying to do anything about this or the central government is doing any plans to you know renovate the situation not a government is not doing but as a responsible trade unions we are trying to do certain schemes to improve the services I can self-critically I can agree one thing our services are little bit inferior because of the government policies and number two even on our customer service centers our people could not answer the customers also we could not supply for an example one customer is asking us you please provide ftth connection to our home ftth connection is the fiber network he is asking but we can't give a connection because we can't buy fiber fiber optic fiber at all now it is the order of the day optic fiber has been introduced in India and they are giving all connections to internet connections they are providing and they gave advertisement that 100 mbbs will free 2000 GB every month you can use it as a free and they charge 9999 rupees very well BSNL also can give with lesser rate also but we have not been allowed to purchase optic fiber in the customer service center if a subscriber ask you please give a give a connection then our people will say sorry we can't give then naturally the customer will be irritated and our people are trying to say that you speak to customer with a smiling face with a smiling face how can I say that I can't give a connection this is our difficulty real difficulty so we are but what we are doing what all the products we are having we are going to the public and we are asking them to buy and use it what the what we are having only we can do that that we are doing throughout the country and we have introduced service with a smile customer delight year everything we are we are doing company was going our company has started to grow in the year 2014 and 15 and our operational we have got operational profit also in their 2014 and 15 but after reliance your entry company went on complete loss so we have to improve the services we can't do it if government our our please if the government allot money if the government permits us to avail loan if the government allow allow allow us to monetize the our own lands BSNL will stand up and it will be a competitor to any other private operators you in the era if BSNL is not there naturally their private operators increase the tariff now they will say everything is less these are public sector company if it is not there it is then they will become the monopoly they will increase the tariff it was the history throughout the world it is proved government organization should be there if it is not the tariff will go so we are requesting the public to support us and fight with us so that we can save nation we can save BSNL thank you sir thank you very much