The New Nation - Internet Edition

OVER the past few years, the governments in office have taken policy decisions to increase the involvement of private entrepreneurs in different sectors of the economy. Public sector agencies like the Telephone and Telegrah Board, as well as industrial units administered by public corporations, have been brought under review.

The decision of the Council of Advisers to turn the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board into a public limited company has been reported in the press. The Council of Advisers has reviewed the performance of the BTTB and noted the service rendered to the subscribers of telephones.

Beyond the spell of uncertainty on service, some officials of the BTTB reportedly tried to obtain extra money from customers. Some subscribers fail to get their snapped connections restored for months together and a section of telephone technicians transfer the lines to other people in the same neighbourhood.

In such a context, the decision of the Council of Advisers to turn the BTTB into a public limited company may be appreciated by subscribers. Those who will ultimately take control of the assets and installations of BTTB may get good dividend from their investments. They will, of course, keep the the exsing officials and technicians on job. They may have to invest also for extended networks to meet the demands of subscribers. The ultimate end of turning the BTTB into a profitable and dynamic enterprise has to be kept upper most in the minds of its operators.

Experiences of the people at large and ultimate customers of services and outputs of privatised industrial units like textile mills, jute mills are quite diverse and frustrating. Some transferred public sector industrial units have been closed and the workforce retrenched. The decision to make the BTTB a private limited comany should be kept beyond the spell of illegal, inrregular and unfair deals.