Panel seeks action against BSNL chief
A parliamentary panel on public sector units has sought action against BSNL chairman and managing director Kuldeep Goyal for not showing up for its meeting on Thursday to examine the functioning of the state-owned telecom firm.
The chairman of the committee on public undertakings V. Kishore Chandra Deo, said in a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar that despite categorical instructions, Mr Goyal did not attend the meeting, sources said.
“This tantamount to gross impropriety on his part,” the letter said, adding that the meeting had to be adjourned,” on a note that the displeasure of the committee may be conveyed to the CMD, BSNL.”
The COPU, one of the three key financial committees of the Lok Sabha, requested the Speaker to take up the matter” with the concerned authorities for appropriate action against Mr Goyal. The BSNL chief had sought exemption from appearing before the COPU on July 7, just a day before the meeting was to take place, sources said, adding that even the written replies from the company were received barely a day before the meeting.
This was the second time that Mr Goyal had sought exemption from attending the meetings of the committee, they said. “The committee unanimously took strong objection to both the late furnishing of written replies as well as non-appearance of CMD, BSNL, despite the chairman’s categorical instructions to him,” the letter noted.
It said there was a tendency on the part of the secretary or PSU chiefs to avoid appearance before parliamentary committees on “one pretext or the other”.
It urged the Speaker to issue “necessary directions to the ministry of parliamentary affairs for taking corrective measures to maintain the supremacy and dignity of Parliament as an institution.” The committee had also taken strong objection to the “indiscretion and condescending attitude” of the NHAI chairman.
“The chairman should certainly have been conscious of the basic norms of etiquette and discretion which a witness appearing before a parliamentary committee should bear in mind,” it said.
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