BSNL Employee Unions to Campaign for Purwar's Removal

BSNL Employee Unions have issued a circular and will, starting late this month, campaign for the removal of CMD PK Purwar.

AUAB to Campaign for Purwar's Removal starting 6th October

The circular read, "a black-flag/black badge wearing demonstration will be organized on October 26, 2021 demanding settlement of the charter of demands. The removal of PK Purwar, CMD, BSNL, will also be included in the charter of demands". On 27th September, the All Unions and Associations of BSNL, or AUAB, had issued the said circular highlighting their charter demands, and hold agitations for the same.

Notably, the charter includes removing Purwar from his post at the state-run telco. The circular added that, starting 6th October, AUAB will start a social media campaign "demanding the removal" of Purwar from the post.

The circular reflected upon the "disappointment" expressed by the leaders of various union leaders within the telco. They said that the management has failed to take steps to revive the telco. "The meeting is of the unanimous view that PK Purwar...is mainly responsible for the all-round failure of the company," the circular said.

The telco, along with MTNL, was awarded a revival package two years ago now, worth Rs. 69,000 crore. The government had issued the revival package to help the PSUs stem some of the losses, and pay their employees. The telco has managed to halve its debt Y-o-Y; bringing it down to Rs. 7,441 crore in 2020-21 from Rs. 15,500 crore in 2019-20. However, its debt still remains at around Rs. 30,000 crore.

No Possibility of BSNL's Revival under Purwar - AUAB

For the majority of his tenure, Purwar led MTNL, and held additional charge as CMD. What's more, he stills holds that position while being the full-time CMD of BSNL. However, the circular said that he "could not do anything for its revival". It added, "rather MTNL has collapsed now. So, there is no possibility of BSNL's revival under the leadership of Purwar".

The union has alleged that the transmission system of the company is collapsing due to non-allotment of funds and proper attention despite repeated appeals made by AUAB. Talking about BSNL's 4G network, the circular said that it could have been done before April 2020, by upgrading just 49,300 towers which had pre-installed 4G-compatible tech.

The circular read, "PK Purwar...did not take any action, other than giving one date after another viz. January 1, 2020, March 1, 2020, April 1, 2020 etc. for launching 4G services. Not only that, Purwar...had even strongly opposed the steps taken by the then director (consumer mobility) for the upgradation of the towers. The earlier management had farsightedly procured 4G compatible equipment and installed it in the system".

Employee Issues at BSNL

The state-run telco has seen almost 80,000 employees opt for the voluntary retirement scheme. However, AUAB alleged that the despite this, the telco still is not doing salary disbursement on due date. "PK Purwar...has now made it known that disbursement of salary to the employees is not his first priority," the circular said.

However, a senior BSNL official said that earlier there was a lag of 4-5 months in salary disbursement due to the financial crisis at the company; now, it has been improved and salaries are now being disbursed every month, he added.

The unions body further alleged that the CMD has imposed an "undeclared ban" on promoting employees. It added that after the VRS scheme, workload on employees has increased. AUAB also alleged that CMD has plans to further reduce manpower at the telco citing restructuring.