The Hindu : Race for BSNL's top slot hots up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 18, 2003

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National

Race for BSNL's top slot hots up

By Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI NOV. 17. The race for the top slot in Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, which falls vacant at the end of the year, has entered an interesting phase with just two prospective candidates in the final round. One of them is an expert in finance, while the other is a telecom technocrat owing allegiance to the powerful Indian Telecom Service (ITS) cadre.

The contest appears to be mirroring the happenings in another State-run telecom company, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL). Here also, one of the two candidates was an expert in finance and the other a telecom technocrat. The latter lost out triggering protests from the ITS fraternity and a case before the Delhi High Court.

In the case of BSNL, however, S.D. Saxena, the finance expert, is an insider unlike the provisional MTNL CMD, R.S.P. Sinha, who joined the corporation just 18 months ago after stints with the Tehri Hydel Development Corporation, the Hindustan Organics and the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL). Dr. Saxena has served the BSNL for long and before that held important posts in the MTNL for several years. His contender, G.D. Geha has served crucial stints in the Department of Telecom and currently heads another telecom PSU, Telecom Consultant of India Limited (TCIL).

The ITS Association (ITSA) at its general body meeting on Friday took note of the development and expressed surprise over the ``inadequate publicity'' given by the Public Enterprises Selection Board while seeking applications for the BSNL CMD's post and making changes in qualifying criteria. As a result, many of the 77 ITS officers of Additional Secretary rank who could have qualified for scrutiny were unaware or scratched out.

``The PSEB should not have clubbed the advertisement for a Rs. 62,000-crore PSU (BSNL) with those of smaller PSUs. Wider publicity should have been ensured,'' said a senior officer.

The meeting has taken heart from the Delhi High Court's observations on the MTNL case. According to the ITSA, the court on Thursday directed the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) to consider the Union Cabinet's decision of 1985 while selecting the candidate for the post of CMD, MTNL.

The court was disposing of an ITSA petition challenging the process followed by PESB in calling the applications and recommending the select panel to the Government, in violation of the Cabinet decision in this regard.

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