Race for BSNL top job hots up

The race for the post of chairman and managing director of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is hotting up with G D Gaiha, the chairman and managing director of Telecommunication Consultants India Ltd, emerging as a frontrunner for the job. Senior BSNL officials including S D Saxena, director (finance) and V P Sinha, acting chairman, have also applied for the post.

The Public Enterprise Selection Board has sought a clarification from the ministry of disinvestment and department of telecom on Gaiha's eligibility since he has spent less than two years in TCIL. The clarification pertains to a directive by the appointments committee, which specified a two-year restriction on job hopping from one public sector undertaking to another.

In its letter to the disinvestment ministry, PESB has asked whether a time-frame to disinvest TCIL had already been taken since it had a bearing on Gaiha's eligibility. The two-year restriction on job hopping starts from the day the cabinet decides to disinvest the PSU.

Sources in BSNL, however, said there was much disappointment within the company that an outsider was being considered for the job when BSNL officers, senior to Gaiha were due for a promotion. Gaiha was earlier director on the MTNL board and was also considered for appointment as chairman, MTNL. Gaiha could not be contacted for comments.

Earlier, the selection process for MTNL's chairman and managing director had come under fire with Indian Telecom Service officials filing a case in the High Court challenging the government's decision to appoint a non-ITS official for the top job.