Computers Today, August 1-15, 2000; Telecom

August 1-15, 2000 TELECOM

Paswan's Profligacy

The Minister showed various reasons for giving free phones. All these are false.

T.H. Chowdary

Eluding Perfection in Software

Karna of Mahabharata is famed for his daana (beneficence), which he often indulged in to a fault. Ram Bilas Paswan reminds us of Karna. It does not matter in which party or government he is in, while giving away the largesse. As Minister for Railways he saw that tens of thousands of casual labourers were absorbed permanently. He also created four more railway zones and placed one of the headquarters in his constituency town. And now, as Minister for Communications, he has ordered that 320,000 employees be given a telephone without installation charges, rental and with 150 free calls for every two months.

He justified this on several counts: private companies do this; the Indian Airlines and Railways give free passes to their employees; the extra amount is not taken from the budget of the government but from the internal resources of the DTS/DOT. In return, the DTS employees will agree for corporatisation of the telecoms and they would show more commitment and devotion so that the DTS would be able to compete with private telecom companies. All these are false.

Claim, Disclaim

Firstly, the unions repudiated the minister's statement that in return for the free telephones they have agreed for the corporatisation of telecoms. Secondly, unlike the railways, the DOT has no separate budget. Its demands for grants are part of the government's budget, and it is only by convention that the surplus of the DOT (which comes by pricing services far above costs) is allowed to be utilised by itself and, therefore, the annual expense comes from the budget.

Thirdly, the figure of Rs 66 crore as the extra annual expense he has given is wrong. Fourthly, 40 per cent of the villages in India are still without phones. The DOT/DTS has been defaulting on its target year after year, saying that they have no funds. Paswan's own figure of Rs 66 crore as the outgo on free telephones means about 10,000 village public telephones in the rural areas are foregone per year. Fifthly, when the TRAI wanted to revise (downwards) the long distance call rates, the DOT protested by saying such measures would subvert its public service obligations, that is, providing phones in rural areas. It has, however, been too eager to endorse the minister's orders. Sixthly, 320,000 telephones have a capital cost of about Rs 1,000 crore. The DOT has not be able to generate "all of the investment money it requires internally", and has been borrowing from the MTNL. The interest on the Rs 1,000 crore can't be less than Rs 100 crore. These must be added to the "low estimate" of annual expenses put out by the minister.

Dole for All

More than the figures for expense, the credibility of the government is destroyed. The government is prepared to cut down on the subsidies on farmers' fertilisers but it would give away free telephones to a section of its employees. How can it morally justify its refusal to the demands of say, the income tax, sales tax or customs officials for a percentage of their collections to be distributed among them?

Government employees have never been a satisfied lot-the more you give, the more they ask. Even if Paswan pleases the 320,000 non-gazetted officials of the DTS, how is he going to please the officers of the ITS who are demanding that the secretary of the DTS should be one from among themselves and not an IAS officer?

How much one wishes that Paswan now moves from one department to another so that he does the greatest amount of "service" to the largest number of government servants so that we have a government of the employees, for the employees and by the employees.

The writer is ex-chairman of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd

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