Call drops a legacy of previous Govt: Telecom Minister

Seeking to turn tables on Congress over the call drops issue, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said this problem is a legacy of the last government and he is clearing thew "mess" left by them.
He also said that Congress must be asked why state-owned BSNL and MTNL turned loss-making entities during the UPA regime.
Addressing a press conference here on the call drop menace, Prasad said he is clearing the mess left by the Congress-led UPA government and during their tenure the Sanchar Bhawan - the seat of Telecom Ministry - was known for all the wrong reasons including "corruption, loot and impropriety".

The Congress had yesterday demanded sacking of Telecom Minister for his "incompetence" in resolving the issue of frequent call drops experienced by consumers.
Congress General Secretary Shakeel Ahmed had said it was becoming difficult to talk on mobile "for even five seconds" and the problem was more in the networks of state-owned MTNL and BSNL.
Responding to the Congress' charge, Prasad said, "Call drop is also a legacy of previous government. We inherited it. The weakness in telecom sector that came due to lack of monitoring...Call drop came from other factors... Lack of network improvement, optimisation of network equipment."
The Minister added that BSNL and MTNL were making profit in 2004 till the time the then NDA government was in power, but the two firms became loss-making in 10 years of the Congress rule.