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

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 BSNLReplying 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 monthThe 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 HouseThis 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 saidVaishnaw 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 happensAlso Read Congress indulging in politics of lies on issue of farmers Narendra Singh Tomar in Rajya SabhaTaking 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 saidIn 2019 the first package of Rs 70000 crore was given to the BSNL and it came in operating profit he said adding that in July another package of Rs 164 lakh crore was given to the BSNL and this is very significantVaishnaw 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 soonGone are the days when you saw PSU companies differently Today they are being developed and are growing he addedThe minister said 15 lakh kilometres of unified network has been created by merging the BBNL and the BSNLGujarat is the first state in the country where the fibre network has reached all the villages he claimedA complete 4G saturation package has been approved for all the northeastern villages that have not been covered so far he saidThis package is worth Rs 26000 crore and this entire package will cover close to 24000 to 25000 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 stressedWhen 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 powerBut 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 saidIn his written reply the minister said The Union Cabinet in the meeting held on 27072022 approved the merger of Bharat Broadband Network Limited BBNL with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited BSNL for expediting the rollout of BharatNet network across about six lakh villagesBharatNet 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 nondiscriminatory basis to all service providers The merger of the BBNL with the BSNL will provide endtoend connectivity leading to better uptime and utilisation of BharatNet Vaishnaw saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever