The Hindu Business Line : BSNL union-Raja meet fails to end cellular contract row

Why and wherefore
Mr Raja has sought clarification from BSNL as to why Motorola was disqualified from bidding for the contract even though the American company was supplying equipment to MTNL.
He has also asked BSNL to remove 3G component from the project in order to bring down the per line cost to under $100.

Thomas K. Thomas

New Delhi, July 9 The meeting between the Joint Forum of BSNL Unions, representing nearly 3.4 lakh employees, and the Communication and IT Minister, Mr A. Raja, on Monday, to discuss the controversial 45.5 million cellular line project ended without much success with the Minister giving no assurances on awarding the contract soon. The employees had met the Minister to press for urgent action on the project as delays had cost BSNL nearly Rs 130 crore over the last two months.

Speaking to Business Line, Mr V.A.N. Namboodiri, General Secretary, Joint Forum of BSNL and MTNL Unions, said, “The Minister did not give us any assurance that the contract will be settled soon. He told us that he was awaiting the report from the BSNL board before deciding on the future course of action. We are going ahead with our plan to strike work on July 11 and further delay will force us to go on an indefinite strike.”

The joint forum, comprising all the 13 telecom employees unions affiliated to both the Congress and the Communist parties, said re-tendering was not an option as it will take another two years resulting in a loss of more than Rs 30,000 crore to the PSU.

Mr Raja has sought clarification from BSNL as to why Motorola was disqualified from bidding for the contract even though the American company was supplying equipment to MTNL. He has also asked BSNL to remove 3G component from the project in order to bring down the per line cost to under $100. Ericsson, which had emerged as the lowest bidder at $107, had refused to lower the price any further. Motorola said that they were watching the developments closely and would make a re-bid if asked to do so. Meanwhile, BSNL officials said that the company board would soon reply to the Minister’s queries

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