By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The North East-I circle of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) earned an overall revenue of Rs 213.96 crore in financial year 2012-13, marking an increase of Rs 4.9 crore even as it had as much as Rs 84 crore outsanding dues in the states of Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, BSNL NE-I circle Chief General Manager DP Singh informed that the BSNL had an outstanding amount of Rs 26 crore in Meghalaya for the financial year 2012-13 out of which Rs 3 crore has been recovered while the dues in Tripura and Mizoram were Rs 36 crore and Rs 22 crore respectively.
Singh, who cited non-delivery of bills as the main reason for the outstanding amounts, informed that BSNL’s expenditure had also come down by Rs 2.9 crore.
While referring to wireless broadband, Singh said there was considerable progress in the sector with 28 base trans-receiver stations made operative in Meghalaya, 19 in Mizoram and 47 in Tripura.
“203 state wide area network nodes are being created in the state for the State Wide Area Network (SWAN) and about 95 per cent of the nodes have been connected while the remaining are expected to be completed this year,” he said.
The BSNL official also aired concern over the non availability of Indian networks in the areas bordering Bangladesh.
“The Government of India should look into it. Indian residents are forced to use signals from Bangladesh service providers in such areas,” he said.
“We have a mechanism where signal becomes ineffective if it goes to other side,” he said while adding that the BSNL is a business entity and the PSU would not go to areas where there is no financial return.
“Even other service providers have refused to put base transceiver stations (BTS) in rural areas. The telecom sector in the North East should be funded by the Government of India as the region is still behind other areas,” he added.
The BSNL is also working on the pilot project to connect all schools of the State under broadband service and this is being monitored by Ministry of Human Resources Development.
