Congress treated PSUs like BSNL as cash cows: Ashwini Vaishnaw in Rajya Sabha

Union Minister of Communications Ashwini Vaishnaw. Pic/PTI

Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw hit out at the Congress on Friday for allegedly treating PSU telecom companies BSNL and BBNL as "cash cows", and asked the members of the opposition party to look within on why 4G and 5G technologies were not allocated to the BSNL.

Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Vaishnaw said the BSNL and the BBNL have been merged with each other and the joint network being created by them is helping add more than one lakh connections in villages every month.

"The combined network of the BSNL and the BBNL is adding more than one lakh household connections every month, providing good bandwidth and good connectivity. Today, the data consumption in these connections is close to 120 GB per month," the minister told the House.

"This new model where we have taken local village entrepreneurs on board, making sure the village economy grows, is very good and progressing very rapidly and in the coming months, you will see the results," he said.

Vaishnaw said the BBNL is being merged with the BSNL not because the former is a failure, but to help reduce the cost friction between the two and make sure that a harmonised development of broadband happens.

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Taking a swipe at the Congress, he said the BSNL was a very healthy company and so was the MTNL. "But Between 2004 and 2014, the kind of treatment meted out to these companies by people sitting in the opposition benches now, who treated them like cash cows. The manner in which these companies were destroyed -- there are many examples," the minister said.

In 2019, the first package of Rs 70,000 crore was given to the BSNL and it came in operating profit, he said, adding that in July, another package of Rs 1.64 lakh crore was given to the BSNL and this is very significant.

Vaishnaw said India was earlier dependent on foreign countries for latest technologies in the telecom sector but now, 4G and 5G would be rolled out by these companies soon.

"Gone are the days when you saw PSU companies differently. Today, they are being developed and are growing," he added.

The minister said 15 lakh kilometres of unified network has been created by merging the BBNL and the BSNL.

Gujarat is the first state in the country where the fibre network has reached all the villages, he claimed.

A complete 4G saturation package has been approved for all the northeastern villages that have not been covered so far, he said.

"This package is worth Rs 26,000 crore and this entire package will cover close to 24,000 to 25,000 villages, which are yet to get complete 4G coverage. Northeastern states, parts of Odisha and parts of Himachal Pradesh will be covered under this package," Vaishnaw stressed.

When Congress member Rajani Patil asked when would the BSNL get the 5G network, the minister took a swipe at her and said, "Sometimes, one should look within. When Spectrum allocation and VGN were being given, what decision was taken by the party in power?"

"But we do not work like them. The 4G and 5G technologies developed in India will be made available in the country and the world will appreciate it," he said.

In his written reply, the minister said, "The Union Cabinet in the meeting held on 27.07.2022 approved the merger of Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) for expediting the roll-out of BharatNet network across about six lakh villages."

BharatNet would continue to be funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) and its infrastructure will remain a national asset owned by the USOF and accessible on a non-discriminatory basis to all service providers. The merger of the BBNL with the BSNL will provide end-to-end connectivity, leading to better uptime and utilisation of BharatNet, Vaishnaw said.

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