Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan has directed state-owned BBNL and BSNL to initiate disciplinary action against officials who failed to fix non-functional broadband equipment under the ambitious BharatNet project, sources said. This is the second time in little over a month that Sundararajan has flagged the issue as Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL) and BSNL are yet to take steps that could have led to disciplinary action or filing of chargesheet against the officers who are accountable for maintenance of broadband lines under the BharatNet. The secretary has sent a strongly-worded communication, dated December 14, to the heads of BBNL and BSNL after she came to know that broadband equipment in over 50,000 village panchayats are non-functional, the sources said. Under BharatNet government has enabled over 1.21 lakh panchayats with optical fibre cable-based high speed broadband network. Besides, BSNL has submiited that faults have reduced to 10,000 till December 17 from 24,000 as on December 14. If proper monitoring mechanism through messages and app is put in place to alert field officers, then the faults can be reduced further, the sources said citing the telecom operator’s submission.
DoT Secy directs BBNL, BSNL to take disciplinary action against officials for BharatNet faults
