No proposal to lay off 54,000 employees approved by BSNL: Prasad

New Delhi: State-owned telecom firm BSNL has not approved any proposal to lay off 54,000 employees, telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said Thursday. According to official data, a total of 1,63,902 employees, including 46,597 executive and 1,17,305 non-executive, were working with BSNL as on March 31, 2019.

“BSNL has informed that no proposal to lay off over 54,000 employees has been approved by BSNL,” Prasad said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

BSNL and MTNL have sought permission from the government to monetise their land assets as well as for a voluntary retirement scheme for employees on the Gujarat model.