Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) employees' union on Thursday urged the Centre to remove Ashok Jhunjunwala, Professor of IIT, Chennai from the search-cum-selection committee, formed to appoint the heads of BSNL and MTNL.
In a letter to Communications and Information Technology Minister A. Raja, the Sanchar Nigam Executives' Association (India) pointed out that Dr. Jhunjunwala is a board member of various telecom companies and other firms.
Therefore, his appointment would lead to “conflict of interests.”
“The very fact that a member of the committee is on the board of directors of a large number of commercial organisations relating to the telecom sector, is in itself a strong disqualification for his being even remotely considered for such a crucial and sensitive assignment. His induction in the committee as part of a larger and meticulously calibrated move of the private service providers to influence the decision of selection process, so as to push through their sinister commercial agenda in the BSNL cannot at all be brushed aside,” it said.