BSNL embarks on major hiring binge

Indranil Chakraborty & Arpan Mukherjee in Kolkata

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the government-owned telecom giant, is going on a recruitment binge to fill up 4,690 vacant posts of junior accounts officers, half of which will be open to direct recruits.

The Rs 23,000-crore telecom service provider, the corporatised form of the department of telecommunications, already has 3.62 lakh employees but needs more specialised people to spruce up its operations in the face of competition from private players.

According to a circular signed by assistant director general, Ms Prema Krishmachari on August 31, BSNL has 4690 posts of JAOs which have fallen vacant since the department stopped recruitments in 1984.

The recruitments will also be the largest by any single government enterprise in recent times. “From 1984 our recruitment was closed. After 13 years we have decided to recruit people to carry out our expansion plans,” said a BSNL official here.

The annexure of the circular has a critical element for all direct recruits — the execution of a five-year bond to serve the company.
According to the BSNL official, on earlier occasions also fresh recruits had to sign bonds for a number of years. “We decided to keep this clause as it will help to retain manpower,” he said.

According to the rules, laid down elaborately for the first time by BSNL, half the total vacant posts in any of the 28 circles will be filled up through direct recruitments. Of the balance, 40 per cent will be through promoting employees who fulfill certain conditions.