Malerkotla: Man accuses BSNL of corrupt practices, flouting regulations
Malerkotla, August 27
An entrepreneur from the city has accused authorities in the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited of rejecting his applications for the installation of optical line terminals (OLTs) at some villages of the district.
The complainant, Pardeep Kumar, alleged that the authorities had taken application of another aspirant in ‘backdate’ and accepted his application on the first-come-first-serve basis, violating rules of the department.
He also accused the personnel concerned of adopting corrupt practices to exploit rules and regulations. These accusations were declared false by senior BSNL functionaries.
Lack of a proper waiting list of applicants for installing OLTs at various localities and details of rules regarding selection of applicants had emerged bone of contention in
the case.
Kumar expressed his dissatisfaction regarding the information received under the right to information (RTI), as he was not provided copies of the waiting list or ‘dak’ receipt register, besides information regarding rules allowing selection on the first-come-first-serve basis.
“Though I was hopeful that the Chief Information Commissioner, he washed off his hands of his duty by ordering the Deputy General Manager (Operations)-cum-Central Public Information Officer (DGM-cum-CPIO) to review and provide information afresh,” Kumar said.
Perusal of communication between the complainant and senior functionaries in BSNL revealed that allegations labelled against local functionaries could not be substantiated by the complainant.
“Hence, the undersigned is of the opinion that the allegations labelled by the complainant against Malerkotla subdivisional engineer (SDE) Yogesh Garg seem to be false and baseless. However, he has been instructed to maintain the waiting list register along with receipt / dispatch record in future for such type of requests and follow more transparent methods for getting OLTs sanctioned to any vendor,” read the concluding paragraph of a communication sent by DGM (O) to SDE (legal/HR-Gen).
