BSNL: An Insider View

'Anonymous BSNL Employee' *

BSNL Headquarters :: Pix - wikipedia/KuwarOnline

The public perception of BSNL is of a poor old rustic government office where hardly ever a sweeper cleans it up, with loads of Betel leaf splash all over the wall. The apathetic officials who hardly ever listen to the outsiders (in this case customers) are generally busy in their own right. BSNL OFFICE can sometimes be likened to a dentist's place where people seldom want to go and if by mistake they have to venture it the vicious cycle repeats.

Ultimately the tooth is either replaced or the denture requires repetitive service. Most of the time when I am travelling I find people really interested in talking about BSNL which they feel is either a doll in the hands of a child or an antique piece ready for disposal in museum in either way they are right in their own right. The biggest talk of town always remains the poor show of network in BSNL connection.

Someone among the crowd murmurs that BSNL IS CONNECTING INDIA but unfortunately the INDIA they are connecting exists in DELHI and MUMBAI where there is no BSNL and the Bharat is left out. Talking of problems associated within BSNL and the list never ends but I have tried to make a concise effort to highlight some core issues in the coming part of this column.

If a person has health problems the person goes to a doctor and if the problem is not solved there the person may go to a religious healer or soothsayer. If the problem is not resolved there then the person reaches out for temple, church or mosque in hope of solace. Even if the problem is not solved there the person asks the miraculous god for help. But, in BSNL a person is surrounded by problem of sorts.

The person follows a step by step approach in trying to resolve the issues. Majority of problems in BSNL are related to the personal grievance of employees who are also not satisfied with its services either. The person first approaches the HR Cell ( Human Resources). The HR cell is the least equipped cell in BSNL in terms of the resources available at its disposal. There is dearth of well documented policies, laws and regulation in BSNL. This has resulted in varied opinion and steps taken by HR Managers.

The same problem does not have any precedence and the solution at times is dubious and can be challenged in court. So even with more than 2.5 lakhs of Human resources the HR cell is not well equipped and behaves in a very pedantic manner. If the problem of an employee does not get solved at H R level then the person is bound to knock the door of Union or Association( As in most cases).

There is an interesting fact about unions and associations in BSNL that, there are n numbers of Unions and associations in BSNL ( a Union is representative of Non Executive employees whereas an Association is the representative of executive employees). For different cadres there is a different union or association. So the person accordingly touches that particular institution for resolution of his problem.

But chances of success in any of cases are very minimal. The person goes to court as a last resort but the chances of success in this case is not very bright as well. The court which is already piled with more than 5 Crore cases pending in various courts all over India is sickened with BSNL cases coming to court every second day. With more than 2.5 lakh employees which should have been considered as valuable Human Resource is considered otherwise as huge burden as part of legacy of erstwhile DOT time.

In India where a person is burdened with problems of family, society, poor governance and degrading morality of humanity is further loaded with his future prospects. And if the person is part of happy go lucky BSNL family then the issue of his/her future is in very much uncertain hands. The result of such confusion is presence of pseudo-anarchy. The people who are customers of BSNL have nothing to do with the internal rift but since they are the unfortunate customers bearing the fruit at the last stage they are part and parcel of this legacy.

From more than 10000 Crores profit in 2004-05 to a loss running around 10000 crores in 2012-13 the company has come a long way in its 13 year long life since its inception in October 2000. The key and immediate concern of BSNL is leadership crisis and poor HR management. In BSNL , Trickledown theory does not work but the information percolates at the top, fumes and vaporizes, bottom remains high and dry at most occasions.

The real top brass of BSNL is not the part and parcel of BSNL and does not fit into the scheme of things when it comes to holding anyone responsible for the fiasco of the behemoth called BSNL. Leadership crisis is the foremost issue which is not yet solved and is expected not to be solved till our TITANIC named BSNL sinks. The top management of BSNL is predominantly consisting of ITS officers(Indian Telecommunication Services).

Until April 2013 those ITS officers who were on deputation( even though many a times opposition was made for their stand as being on deputation and not getting either absorbed in BSNL or repatriated back to DOT for good) in BSNL for long 13 years(after court ordered them to be repatriated back to DOT) were deployed in BSNL since DOT was either in no condition to accommodate them or BSNL was in no condition to relinquish them, but in either way the decision makers were same bunch of people in BSNL or DOT (sic).

Nowadays however I have a very big doubt on the English being used to change the words. Whether changing deputation for deployment has anything to do with the core question of accountability but to accommodate a cadre which has utterly failed to lead the so called over $100 billion company (government figure as of 2009-10), when the company was proposed to enter share market. Deployment is commonly associated with army or defense system in war ravaged or disturbed area. Otherwise it is seldom used for equipments. But, never ever the word is used for the sake of change of nomenclature.

ITS officers are selected through a prestigious Engineering Services Exam conducted by UPSC. There is nothing wrong with that, except that in broader sense BSNL is failing and if the captain of the ship is left scot free and the mere pawns are punished it will not do justice to very cause of creation of India's second biggest Public Sector Undertaking. Instead of considering 2.5 lakh employees as boon the management has created a picture that this is a big burden and the management is not abl! e to pay even the salaries. Elsewhere this much staff strength would have been utilized judiciously but unfortunately the extremely talented bunch has taken the help of outsourced vendors. It is really humiliating that there are more than 1300 vendors in BSNL providing services to BSNL at various levels.

This shows a complete lack of trust of higher management (sic) towards its employees. Even though BSNL is having more than 30000 executives and among which around 10000 executives are Graduate Engineers (recruited through All India Competitive exams specifically for the purpose of accommodating to the current needs of technology) which is one of the highest technically skilled staff at any level by any company in India, taking all sorts of support from vendors shows the poor management intentional or unintentional.

In the current scenario when the world is moving towards managers BSNL is hell bent to behave as regulator when it comes to behavior of higher management (sic). It is very important for all to know the difference between regulation and management. When the resources are limited one needs to control the flow of resources this system is called regulation, but when the resources are enormous and controlling the flow is either not important or not possible then one needs to coordinate and manage the flow of resource instead of restricting its flow.

Add to it the people (sic) responsible for debacle are given all benefits( goods of both world that is DOT and BSNL) and the benefits of lower staff (or can say regular employees) are curtailed down to bare minimum. May be in modern democracy unlike in earlier monarchial system where a defeated king was either beheaded, prisoned or tortured, the bureaucrats are given so much of immunity that even after huge losses on part of their resume they are rewarded by benefits(akin to Geeta where fruit is completely dissociated with duty, but in Geeta duty holds importance unlike in current scenario where fruit holds importance).

The handful of ITS officers have been running the show for BSNL from yesteryears of erstwhile DOT. People working within BSNL are also human beings and they also like the ideologies like honesty, truthfulness, integrity, good customer care, high personal morale and a good society. But if the belly is not functioning properly don't expect brain to function rightly. Mr. Sam Pitroda recommended certain measures to improve the health of BSNL. One of the measures included VRS( voluntary Retirement Scheme).

This measure may help somewhat but without resolving ITS issue ( akin to absentee landlord) no other issue can help BSNL. VRS is a somewhat controversial measure, since it provides for staffs old enough to retire earlier than the standard retiring age. In other words it creates paid unemployment instead of utilizing the manpower judiciously. The prime purpose of a PSU is to create infrastructure, provide essential situation for growth of nation, improve the GDP, reduce the rural urban divide and to create employment. But with creation of unemployment is somewhere contradictory.

The most important issues which need immediate attention in order of higher to lower in terms of priority for BSNL are:
1) Resolution of proxy managers' issue.
2) Immediate implementation of CPSE hierarchy.
3) Restructuring HR ( human resources) with well drafted set of rules.
4) Revitalizing its infrastructure.
5) Proactive customer relationship.

We do not know the future of our destiny but we know our present and improving it always remains our priority.