BSNL, MTNL USERS PUT ON HOLD AS VRS HITS SERVICE

BSNL, MTNL USERS PUT ON HOLD AS VRS  HITS SERVICE

The VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme) has reduced workforce and it is also hitting the service quality. MTNL(Mahanagar Telephone Nigam) is other state owned telco like BSNL that operates only in Delhi and Mumbai. Around 75 percent of MTNL staff took the VRS  offer and left recently. An angry Mumbaikar said that company does not  have the manpower to attend to complaints.

Vinod Desai, who is an Ahmadabad based retired bank official said that he has been visiting the BSNL office for the last two moths to complain about his dead landline connection. Around 65 percent of BSNL employees leave after accepting VRS package. Geo Vargheese who is  businessman has seen that the internet speed of the BSNL broadband is really unsatisfactory.  Another guy from Hyderabad has said that BSNL officers are taking too time to respond than before, to service complaints.

P K Puurwar, chairman and managing director of BSNL said that the existing employees are fighting against this challenging situation. Of the total number of employees who took VRS from both BSNL and MTNL are non executive staffs. BSNL and MTNL have shed 92869 at one go through VRS. A BSNL executive said that however the overall impact of VRS on company operations was minimal.

They are planning for outsourcing for future, and company officials said that the outsourced partners will manage copper lines for landline connections. Majority of people who opted for VRS  are among the group c staff who used to maintain these copper lines. The maintenance of optic fiber network will also be outsources, said official of Gujarat circle.

At BSNL offices in Hyderabad, officers managing the post VRS situation have redeployed staff from back end administrative work at customer service centers. Managing the customer service centers and handling of fault rectification are our priority,said a senior BSNL executive. He also added that they are trying to ensure the least possible disruption at this challenging difficult stage.  The impact is even seen at the centers where BSNL has subsidiaries.

Bhanu Kiran Chakraborty, a retired Damodar Valley official has said that the quality of voice services as well as data speed has been falling for the past two years even before the VRS was offered. The government plans to monetize MTNL and BSNL asset worth Rs 37500 crore over a period of three years to raise the resources of retiring debt and to meet the operational fund requirement.