BSNL's officials will hold regular interactions with members of Parliament, apprising them of the company's performance and receive regular updates on the telecom company's performance from various parts of the country. Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who presided over the first such meeting, has undertaken the initiative. "Telecom Ministry will hold such meetings of all the interested parties to expedite the process of improving the quality and reach of telecom signal from BSNL," a release issued by the telecom ministry said. MPs from Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and North Eastern States were present in the first meeting. There will be five such meetings to be held, enabling all MPs to raise issues directly with concerned officials.

MPs had offered land in their respective constituencies for erecting towers and further offered funds from MPLAD scheme for this purpose. Some MPs complained that in border areas telecom local population owing to either weak or lack of BSNL's network was using signals from across the border. They suggested that meeting of representatives from Defense ministry and Home ministry should be called to address this problem. Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has directed the telecom department to explore the possibility of setting up a dedicated cell in BSNL to monitor the effectiveness of its network in border areas and also in areas severely affected by extremism.

The initiative by the Telecom department is in the right step to face the competition and to provide service upto the satisfaction of the customers. BSNL should also take necessary steps to ensure the attitude of their employees and make them more customer-friendly. The delay in response to customer requirements and lack of user friendly packages are the root cause of the state run telecom company to lose customers. The members of Parliament should utilize the opportunity to convey the customer requirements to the department and ensure those requirements are implemented for the benefit of the customers.

By Premji