DoT to examine Pitroda Panel's report on BSNL tomorrow

Telecom Commission, the policy making arm of Department of Telecom (DoT), will meet tomorrow to consider the Sam Pitroda Committee report on restructuring of BSNL, which suggested splitting of the top post at the PSU, trimming the workforce and allowing 30 per cent disinvestment.

The Full Telecom Commission Meeting to consider the recommendations of the Pitroda Committee is scheduled to be held on July 7, DoT said in a statement.

DoT's statement comes in the wake of reports that telecom Minister A Raja is defying the Pitroda panel's suggestions by keeping silent, especially in choosing the successor to BSNL CMD Kuldeep Goyal, who is retiring next month.

The Pitroda panel had suggested splitting the post of CMD into two -- chairman and managing director.

It also denied reports that several candidates were interviewed on June 8.

"No interviews were held for the post of CMD, BSNL on June 8," it added.

In January, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had constituted a committee headed by Sam Pitroda to look into BSNL's financials and operations and suggest ways to revive the telecom PSU.

Besides the Pitroda Committee report, the telecom commission is likely to take up the issue of imposing financial penalty on the telcos who have not met their roll- out obligations.

As per the norms laid down, telcos had to cover at least 10 per cent of each district headquarter in a circle (state or a metro city) within a year and 50 per cent of the districts within three years of getting spectrum.

Recently, the government asked 11 telecom companies, including Tatas, Idea and Vodafone, who were given licences in 2006-2008, to submit a progress report on their commercial launches of mobile services to ensure that scarce spectrum is not kept idle.

On instructions from the Prime Minister's Office, the DoT has sent out a letter seeking a progress report from all these 11 telecom operators, who were given spectrum bundled with licences in 2006, 2007 and 2008.