Morung Express News
November 7
DIMAPUR: The army will be assisting the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited for a period between three to six months. This assistance, however, is limited in the context of top management. Disclosing this today, a top army official told The Morung Express that high ranking army officers- mostly Colonels and Brigadiers- would be filling in the vacuum which will materialise after the Deputy General Managers, General Managers and their higher ups, who are in deputation, leave their positions. A multi national corporation is set to take over the BSNL in the near future. The move is being initiated as per the directive of the Government of India. This latest development will be effected in other regions of the Northeast as well.
The officer further conveyed that the services of the BSNL would in all probability improve during this interim period as discipline would be enforced in the working of the BSNL. When asked to comment if the move could be seen as an abrogation of the right to expression, he replied by saying that the question did not arise as the army would only be concentrating on the effective execution of telecom services. “No army personnel will be manning the exchange,” he said.
Earlier, the NSCN (I-M) had voiced its displeasure against the proposal. Talking to The Morung Express over telephone, Kilo Kilonser (Home Minister) of the outfit Rh Raising said the implementation of such a move would be an infringement on the right to expression which the public should be entitled to enjoy. The Kilonser is also of the view that such a move entails a political agenda. Student leaders and political observers had earlier expressed serious concern over this development in the backdrop of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act still in operation in Nagaland.
It may be mentioned that this paper had earlier carried the news about the government of India’s proposal to hand over telecom operation in the region for an ‘interim period’ as part of its privatisation plan of BSNL. The Signal Corps of the Indian Army would in all likelihood be the agency to implement this temporary arrangement. If the proposal goes through, the Signal Corps may take over the present telephone as well as cellular services provided by the BSNL in Nagaland.
The Government of India has reportedly begun processing the “necessary” formalities to facilitate the Army Signal Corps ‘managing’ telecommunication services in the State. Highly placed sources had told The Morung Express that an official questionnaire was dispatched from the Intelligence Bureau Headquarters in New Delhi ‘very recently’ to the concerned ‘authorities’ to conduct an in-dept assessment ‘if such a proposal goes through’.
