Wide Open

Ramesh Menon, a BSNL customer, finds no watchman at the gate, doors open, and counters unmanned when he visited the company office at Tripunithara 

By Shevlin Sebastian 

Entrepreneur Ramesh Menon was working on his laptop early on Wednesday morning at his home in Tripunithara. Realising that the line was a bit slow, he decided he would go to the BSNL office and change his digital plan. But when he reached the building, he found that the gate was open, with no watchmen present. 

And nobody was manning the counters on the ground floor. A few rooms which had technical equipment were empty. He went to the first floor to look for some senior staff. Again, he walked about and did not see anybody. All the rooms were in darkness but the doors were wide open. Soon, a few more customers had gathered around. “Everybody looked puzzled,” says Ramesh. 

As he stepped out of the building he met a man. “He identified himself as an electrician who looked after the electrical room at the back of the building,” says Ramesh. “He told me that out of a staff of approximately 35, around 19 had applied for VRS. In fact, I read recently, 68.9 per cent of the eligible staff in Kerala have applied for VRS, the highest among all the states.” 

Asked the lack of a security guard at the gate, the electrician told Ramesh that he was an employee of an agency which had been contracted to provide security. But because of non-payment of dues, they withdrew the guard. 

When Ramesh stepped out, he saw a board which stated, in Hindi, English and Malayalam ‘Today Holiday’. “I missed seeing it,” says Ramesh. “It was at an inconspicuous place. Later, a friend told me that they were closed because of Pongal.” 

Meanwhile, an official of the Sanchar Nigam Executives’ Association, Kerala, on condition of anonymity said that on holidays, one person is always deputed to keep an eye on the equipment. “Maybe, at Tripunithara, he might have stepped out to have tea,” he says. 

Whatever may be the reason, Ramesh feels pained at the state of BSNL. “It has the best infrastructure when compared to the private mobile companies,” he says. “For my dad, who is 86, and my mom, who is 78, BSNL is their lifeline. They don’t use mobile phones. And for years, I lived outside and stayed in touch with them through BSNL only. What I fear most about the decline of BSNL is that landlines will become redundant. And elderly people will be left without phones.” 

Ramesh also questioned this idea of giving VRS to technicians who have two to three decades of experience. “These veterans know where the cable is, and how it connects under the ground,” he says. “Tomorrow, you will have to bring temporary staff by paying higher salaries but who have only three to four years of experience. They will not have much technical knowledge. It will weaken the company.” 

(The New Indian Express, Kochi)