Over 60,000 BSNL, MTNL Employees Have Opted For VRS So Far: Telecom Secretary

More than 57,000 employees of BSNL have opted for VRS in the last few days and the figures when combined with that of state-owned MTNL exceed 60,000, Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash said on Friday.

The numbers of VRS optees have been steadily rising since the plan was announced earlier this week. On Friday alone, the numbers for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) climbed from 40,000 in the late afternoon to over 57,000 by evening.

“Overall, for BSNL and MTNL combined over 60,000 employees have opted for VRS so far. For BSNL alone, the number has crossed 57,000 employees,” Prakash told reporters here.

Prakash said that the response was “unprecedented”, and that government’s overall target stood at 94,000.

The government last month had approved a plum Rs 69,000 crore revival package for BSNL and MTNL that includes merging the two loss-making firms, monetising their assets and offering VRS to employees so that the combined entity turns profitable in two years.

BSNL Chairman PK Purwar had told reporters earlier on Friday that over 40,000 employees have already opted for the VRS plan,―The Pioneer