BSNL CMD Purwar denied extension, DoT officer Robert Ravi to get additional charge

BSNL CMD Purwar denied extension, Ravi appointed to lead BSNL, MTNL, and BBNL for six months.

The government has denied extension to BSNL Chairman and Managing Director P K Purwar and has given the charge to a senior department of telecom officer Robert J Ravi, official sources said.

Mr. Purwar, who took charge as BSNL CMD in July 2019 for five years, had applied for an extension which was rejected by the Department of Telecom.

An Appointment Committee of Cabinet (ACC) order said it has approved the DoT proposal for "non-extension of tenure" of BSNL CMD Pravin Kumar Purwar beyond July 14.

The ACC approved DoT's proposal for "entrustment of additional charge of the post of CMD BSNL, along with CMD MTNL, and CMD BBNL in favour of Shri Ravi A Robert Jerard, DDG (SRI) for a period of six months with effect from July 15, 2024 till January 14, 2025, or until further orders, whichever is earlier".

During Mr. Purwar's tenure, the government provided three revival packages of more than ₹3 lakh crore to turn around BSNL and enable it to compete with Reliance Jio, Airtel, etc, with the rollout of 4G and 5G services.

The first package of ₹69,000 crore was approved in October 2019 that included about ₹51,000-52,000 crore for BSNL.

It was mainly to fund a voluntary retirement scheme of the company to help it reduce wage burden, purchase of 4G spectrum and restructuring of debt.