For the first time in history the salaries of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) employees were delayed since its establishment in the year 2000. The Government of India run BSNL cleared salary dues for the month of February on Friday.
The Government of India led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi acted only after the plea of a mother went viral on social media.
https://twitter.com/RoshanKrRai/status/1105824894548205568
The Modi government was still to clear a sum of INR₹ 2,500 crore for projects the company completed for the government.
The company that employed 3.5 lakh staff in 2000 now employees just 1.7 lakh. BSNL issued a voluntary retirement scheme to get rid of employees.
The woes of the company started in 2009 when it started losing ground over private players like Airtel and Vodafone. However with the kind of disturbance Reliance Jio created on tariffs, all the other companies are losing to compete.
The cash strapped telecom company blamed the Modi government for its the state poor bankrupt state of telecom industry.
Meanwhile the Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley was mocked after the video went viral, he however was busy tweeting about the achievements of the Modi government and failed to comment on the issue.
BSNL at the moment will look to cut down its strength by 35,000.The company has a loss of INR₹ 1,00,000 crore, will look to introduce 4G LTE services across India to keep consumers on it’s radar. The telecom ministry is may be also looking to sell off the assets of the loss making company just like how they plan for Air India.