Sixth Pay panel advises terminating Telecom Commission

The Sixth Pay Commission has suggested that the Telecom Commission be scrapped as its role has been reduced to mere policy making and coordinating agency, after BSNL was setup as a separate public sector undertaking.

Pay panel chairman B N Srikrishna's report submitted to the government on 24 March stated that the telecommunications department would not require a seperate Telecom Commission and the government should review the necessity of persisting  with the commission.

The telecom department  has stopped functioning as a service provider and is merely operating as a conventional department, after  hiving off of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) as a PSU, the report added.

It further said that Indian Telecom Service (Group A), which provides telecom services, should be discontinued because its functions have been corporatised and all the existing officers of this services should either be absorbed in BSNL and MTNL or else sent to the surplus pool.

The Pay panel also wanted government should review the continuation of the the office of Salt Commissioner and Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals, which earned Rs3.5 crore by way of revenue from cess as against the total expenditure of Rs10 crore.

Also, as  issues pertaining to iodised salt and technical and institutional aspects are being handled by other ministries, the office of the Salt Commissioner could be closed, the report stated.