Shrivastava’s appointment as BSNL chief hanging in balance

Struggling state-run telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) will take time to select its new CEO as the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has rejected Anupam Shrivastava's appointment as its chairman and managing director.

BSNL director (consumer mobility) Shrivastava’s name was recommended by Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) and approved by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and former telecom minister Kapil Sibal for the post.

But now the ACC wants the telecom department to "re-submit" a fresh application after incorporating the "views of present telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad", media reports say.

At the same time, state-run telco MTNL has been running without a CEO ever since former chairman and managing director A K Garg retired on June 1.

Earlier this month, the tenure of BSNL Chairman and Managing Director R K Upadhyay was extended till the end of June.

Upadhyay's tenure was to end in April but a month’s extension was given by DoT following the approval from then telecom minister. After that the new government gave him this extension.

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad yesterday met the senior management of BSNL and MTNL to discuss the PSUs revival strategies.

"Discussed strategy for revival of BSNL and MTNL with senior management. No excuse for poorperformance will be acceptable," Prasad tweeted.

"Will personally monitor progress made by BSNL and MTNL in augmenting infrastructure and increasing customer base on monthly basis," another tweet by Prasad said.

He also asked the management to strictly honour timelines for meeting expansion and modernization targets.

Few days back also, he had announced setting up of an NOC (network operating centre) to monitor BSNL-MTNL towers.

In 2012-13, MTNL recorded a net loss of Rs 5,321.12 crore on annual revenue of Rs 3,428.6 crore and BSNL losses, as per unaudited results, stood at Rs 8,198 crore for 2012-13.