Restructuring of civil wing of bsnl
Proposal by
ALL INDIA JUNIOR ENGINEERS ASSOCIATION
TELEOCM CIVIL WING
Restructuring of Civil wing of BSNL
Objectives:
1) To reduce costs due to dual establishment (Civil and Telecom sides) by way of merger of civil wing with telecom wing.
2) Efficient usage of manpower particularly civil engineering personnel in the BSNL setup.
3) Entrusting estate management starting from planning sage to acquisition of land, construction of buildings and maintenance of buildings etc. to civil engineering personnel.
4) To maintain the BSNL assets in proper shape namely Land, Buildings, Cable ducts, tower foundations and structures.
5) To achieve uniformity in staff matters such as designation, pay scale, recruitment, promotion, privileges etc.
6) To reduce the stagnation in the JTO(Civil) and SDE(Civil) cadres.
I. INTRODUCTION:
Existing Organisational structure of BSNL Civil Wing, its set up and role.
In pursuance of New Telecom Policy, 1999 the Government of India has decided to corporatise the service provision functions of Department of Telecommunications (DOT). Accordingly Government of India has decided to transfer the business of providing telecom services in. the country to the newly formed company Viz. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) with effect from 1.10.2000. Business of providing telecom services and running the telecom factories were transferred to BSNL with effect from 1.10.2000. The Government has decided to retain the functions of policy formation, licensing, wireless spectrum management, administrative control of PSUs, standardization and validation of equipment and R&D etc. These would be the responsibility of Department of Telecommunications (DOT) and Telecom Commission. As such the administrative department for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited would be Department of Telecommunications(DOT).
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has started functioning from 1. 10.2000, headed by Chairman & Managing Director, assisted by (1) Director(Finance), (2) Director(Operations), (3) Director(Commercial and Marketing) (4) Director(HRD) and (5) Director(Planning & New Services). Civil Wing is placed under Director(Planning & New Services).
Prior to 1963, all building works pertaining to P&T Department were entrusted to the CPWD who had earmarked certain units of their own to look after building works in P&T and had designated such units as P&T units of CPWD. When the CPWD was executing the buildings works pertaining to P&T Department, it was catering to the needs of various other Central Government Departments also as such it could not be responsive to the special needs of P&T Department and therefore a need was felt for creation of Civil Wing for the P&T Department, exclusively, culminating in the creation of P&T Civil Wing on 01.07.1963.. When the P&T Civil Wing was created such units of CPWD who were looking after the building works of P&T formed the core of P&T Civil Wing. In earlier days most of the officers and officials were from CPWD and subsequently, they were replaced one by officers and staff who were recruited by P&T Department for its Civil Wing. This Civil Wing, over the years, came to be known as “P&T Civil Wing”. At the initial stage there was only one
Chief Engineer(Civil) in the P&T Directorate and very few P&T Civil Circles, Civil Divisions, Civil Sub Divisions and Section offices scattered through out the country.
The present Civil Wing consists of Civil, Electrical and Architectural units. Earlier these three arms were coming under Sr.DDG(BW) in the Telecom Directorate, New Delhi. However, presently each arm is now having its own Sr.DDG at BSNL.
The present combined sanctioned posts pertaining to Civil Wing of BSNL is as follows.
Sr.DDG(BW)1
Principal Chief Engineer(Civil)4
Chief Engineer(civil)17
Superintending Engineer(Civil)85
Executive Engineer(Civil)218
Assistant Engineer/Asst.Executive Engineer(Civil)1072
Junior Telecom Officer (Civil)1422
The Junior Telecom Officer(Civil) is the most important cadre of the entire civil wing directly involved with all the activities of the civil wing forms the entry cadre of the Executive rung of civil wing. Though the entry qualifiation for JTO(Civil) post is graduation in Civil Engineering, lots of JTO’s are having post graduate qualification in civil Engineering.
New posts are created based on the financial norms adopted by CPWD. Either the actual expenditure incurred for construction works or the actual budget allotment is considered for justification of new units for a particular year. The norm for justification of a field Civil Division is Rs.5crore. Other posts such as SEs, AEs, JTOs etc., are based on span of control being notified from time to time. Since the Civil Wing has been integrated with other Telecom Units, we have one Chief-Engineer(Civil) for each Telecom Circle for proper coordination.
Objectives or aims of the Civil Wing:
i) Issue of requisition for the proposed work from the concerned telecom authority.
ii) Collection of site soil particulars and preparation of surveyed site
plan by EE and forwarding the same to Architect.
iii)Preparation of Preliminary drawings by the Architect and approval
of the same by the Telecom authorities based on schedule of
accommodation.
iv)Preparation and submission of preliminary estimates to telecom authorities for issue of
AA & ES.
v) Accord of AI A & E/S by Telecom Authorities.
vi)Preparation of working and detailed drawings by the Architect.
vii)Preparation of detailed estimates and accord of technical sanction
viii)Preparation and issue of NIT
xi) Call of tenders
x) Acceptance of tender and award of work
xi) Execution and completion of work in co-ordination with electrical, architectural and
telecom authorities.
xii)Handing over completed work to Telecom authorities for occupation.
xiii)Preventive maintenance and regular maintenance work.
II. RESTRUCTURING OF CIVIL WING
After the formationof BSNL the merger of Civil Wing with the Telecom main stream was necessciated to achive the objectives outlined in the first page of this report.
First and foremost requirement for achieving the objectives is the complete merger of civil wing with the telecom wing i.e. merger of civil wing units such as civil division, circle, zonal offices with the telecom units at appropriate levels.
Our proposal for achieving the objectives is outlined as follows.
- To reduce costs due to dual establishment.
Presently all the All staff matters such as recruitment, promotion, salary, records etc. of the civil wing staff are looked after by the civil wing administration headed by Sr.DDG(BW) and telecom wing staff matters are dealt by telecom administration headed Sr.DDG(Personnel). The BSNL is incurring lot of expenditure for maintaining this dual establishment. Because the size of civil wing establishment is more compared to Telecom side establishment in terms of establishment staff per total staff strength. For example the Sr.DDG(BW) who is looking after the civil wing establishment controls staff numbering approximately 8000, whereas on the Telecom side the Sr.DDG(Pers) who is also of the same rank of Sr.DDG(BW) looks after the staff matters numbering more than 300000. This clearly shows the additional costs involved for maintaining separate establishment for civil wing. Hence, it is proposed to abolish the posts of Sr.DDG(BW) and lots of administrative posts in the ranks of PCE(Civil) and SE(Civil) after merger of civil wing with main stream to reduce costs for establishment.
- Efficient usage of technical manpower of civil units.
Due to the financial restriction on infrastructure activities the workload of civil engineering personnel has been reduced drastically. For the better utilisation of this man power it is proposed that the personnel in the JTO(Civil) cadre, the entry grade in the executive category can be converted as JTO(Civil &Telecom) after giving suitable training on phased manner. So that JTO(Civil & Telecom) can look after the duties of JTO(Telecom) in the absence of construction activities. So this dual role of JTO(Civil) can take care of present shortfall and future requirement in the JTO(Telecom) grade and thus saves lot of money on staff salary. The JTO(Civil) cadre can be employed directly on the following fields without any training namely 1. Personnel Management. 2. Material Management.
3.Marketing Management. As the JTO(civil) cadre is very well exposed and also experienced in the above fields they can be directly employed in the above fields till the transition of JTO(civil) to JTO(Telecom) cadre is complete.
A suitable training program has to be devised for the JTO(Civil) in the fields of switching and installation in the first phase of training for conversion to JTO(Telecom) cadre.The JTO(Civil) who are likely to continue in the civil engineering activities has to be trained in the following modern and mandatory techniques of civil engineering. 1. Energy efficient building techniques. 2. Rain Water Harvesting. 3. Geographical information system. 4. Computer oriented planning and design of buildings (CADD and STADD etc.).
5. Object oriented program to prepare database for preventive maintenance of buildings. The above objectives are going to be a part of the future safety requirement standards of building construction that are likely to be imposed in the near future by the government agencies.
The JTO(Civil) cadre which is the foundation of the entire civil wing structure is shouldering lot of responsibilities without any financial or administrative power and without any subordinates. This anomaly has to be removed and necessary financial and administrative powers, manpower assistance should be given to JTO(Civil). The proposed powers are
i)Control of Non-Executives in the cadre of TOA’s, Group D’s, practically all Non-Executives under his jurisdiction including sanction of leave to writing of their CR’s etc.
ii) Estimate sanctioning power up to Rs.30,000/- and work awarding powers up to the same amount, execution and preparation of bills without the interference & check measurement of superior authorities etc.
iii)All Non-Executive staff working in the same section (Division/Sub division) of the JTO’s should report to JTO’s.
iv)Posting one non technical assistant under the JTO(Civil) for assisting the JTO’s in the preparation estimates, execution of works and preparation of bills.
3) Entrusting estate management starting from planning stage to acquisition of land, construction of buildings and maintenance of buildings etc. to civil engineering personnel.
The present planning activities in the GM offices(SSA) are looked after by the Telecom personnel in the capacity of AGM(Land and Buildings). The activities include floating a proposal for construction of Telephone Exchange/ Staff quarters, issuing AA&ES to estimates received from civil wing , approval for building lay out & plan, getting local bodies approval for proposed constructions, Taking over buildings from civil wing after completion of projects, getting civic amenities such as water supply/EB supply etc. A careful review of the above activities shows that all such activities are all related to civil engineering only. Unfortunately the above activities are entrusted to Telecom Engineers and because of this there is a considerable delay experienced in completing a civil project.
The present time delay caused for completing a construction activity mainly due to the time taken for issuing the AA&ES/approval of drawings. So, this delay causes excess project cost than the projected one. One of the important reasons for the delay of issuing AA&ES, approval of drawings is due to the lack of technical knowledge at the level of AGM (land and buildings) in the GM office in understanding the nature and the requirement of the civil engineering activity for a particular purpose. So it is proposed to hand over all land and building planning activities to the civil engineering unit i.e. AGM(Estate management-new creation).Further to reduce the time taken for getting the local bodies approval for building construction/civic amenities, the civil engineering unit should be entrusted with the task of getting civic amenities for the telecom buildings because the civil engineering personnel are experienced in the assessment of service charges for the telecom buildings and their knowledge about the local bodies’ bye-laws.
4. Maintaining the BSNL assets in proper shape.
Presently the records regarding the assets of BSNL namely land, buildings(Technical and non technical), cables, ducts, towers etc are not properly prepared or maintained. In the company setup all these records are valuable for the preparation of net worth and half yearly and yearly balance sheet of the company. As the civil engineers are very well experienced in the cost assessment of the land and buildings and all other immovable assets of the BSNL, they can be engaged in the preparation and maintenance of asset records.
The auditors report on the BSNL balance sheet and profit and loss account for the year ended on 31st March, 2002 says that “The records maintained by the Company in respect of its fixed assets are not considered to be proper in so far as these do not show full particulars including quantitative details and situation of fixed assets. The fixed asset register is to be updated in case of several units”. The fixed assets meant by the auditor include land, buildings, cables, ducts, towers etc. The auditor report points out the inadequate data regarding the fixed assets and recommended for updatingthe fixed asset register. Most of the fixed assets are related to civil engineering field, so it will be appropriate to employ civil Engineering personnel for the preparation and maintenance of fixed assets. Hence it is recommended that all works pertaining to preparation and maintenance of fixed assets can be entrusted to civil engineering personnel.
5. Uniformity in designation, pay scale, promotion pattern etc.
Designations should be uniform throughout the BSNL at all levels. Already for JTO and SDE level it has been made uniform and the proposed designations for other levels are
Present designationProposed designation
EE(Civil)DE(Civil)(Field unit)/AGM(Civil)(Planning unit)
SE(Civil)DGM(Civil)
CE(Civil)GM(Civil)
PCE(Civil)PGM(Civil)
Sr.DDG(BW)Sr.DDG(BW)
Further the designations can be suitably modified for all the streams( Civil/Electrical/Architect/Telecom/Factories/Accounts etc.) matching with other public sector units as follows.
Present designationProposed designation
JTO(Civil/Elect/Arch/Telecom)Assistant Manager(Civil/Elect/Arch/Telecom)
SDE(Civil/Elect/Arch/Telecom ) Manager(Civil/Elect/Arch/Telecom)
DE(Civil/Elect/Arch/Telecom) Sr.Manager(Civil/Elect/Arch/Telecom)
DGM(Civil/Elect/Arch/Telecom)DGM(Civil/Elect/Arch/Telecom)GM(Civil/Elect/Arch/Telecom) GM(Civil/Elect/Arch/Telecom)PGM(Civil/Elect/Arch/Telecom) Sr.GM(Civil/Elect/Arch/Telecom)
CGM(Civil/Elect/Arch/Telecom)CGM(Civil/Elect/Arch/Telecom)
Pay scales and promotion pattern should be made at par for all the streams(Civil/Telecom).
6. To reduce the stagnation in the JTO(Civil) and SDE(Civil) cadres.
The JTO(Civil)/SDE(Civil) with more than 20 years of service are still stagnating in the same grade whereas their counterparts in the telecom and accounts stream are getting their promotion within 10 years of service. This has resulted in a anomalous situation where seniors in the civil stream has to report to juniors of other streams which is undesirable and resulted in frustration ultimately the quality and output has suffered. So it is need of the hour to rejuvenate the entire civil stream by giving the much needed promotions and infuse fresh blood in the cadre of JTO(Civil). So it is proposed to create suitable number of SDE/DE posts to reduce the stagnation in the JTO(Civil)/SDE(Civil) grades and fresh recruitment for JTO(Civil) posts.
III. CONCLUSION
To achieve economy and efficiency as per the ideas enumerated under II part, the following measures are proposed.
- The posts of Sr.DDG(BW), 4 posts of PCE(Civil) are downgraded to CE(Civil) rank to curtail the establishment cost.
- 7 posts are newly created in the ranks of CE(Civil)/GM(Civil) in CGMT offices linking the creation of posts with the positional basis.i.e Each CGMT will have one CE(Civil) under his jurisdiction. Total number of CE(civil)/GM(Civil) posts:
Existing strength(17)+New creations(7)+Downgraded posts-para 1(5)=29
- 19 Posts in the grade SE(Civil)/DGM(Civil) are proposed for abolition to curtail Establishment cost. The SE(Civil) posts are primarily engaged in the administrative and planning activities So, All the SE(Civil)/DGM(civil) posts are moved to CGMT offices under the control of CE(Civil) to assist the CE(Civil) in the planning activities.
- 332 new posts are created in the grade of EE(Civil)/DE(Civil) to assist the SSA heads(PGMT/GMT) in Estate Management, Asset Management, Planning, Execution of Civil Engineering activities etc. The creation of posts are based on functional requirements and it doesn’t involve any additional expenditure, as 500 or more SDE(Civil) are already drawing the DE(Civil) pay scale by ACP Scheme.
- 128 new posts are created in the SDE(Civil) cadre to assist the DE(civil) in the PGMT/GMT offices inEstate Management, Asset Management, Planning, Execution of Civil Engineering activities etc.The creation of posts are based on functional requirements and it doesn’t involve any additional expenditure, as 300 or more JTO(Civil) are already drawing the SDE(Civil) pay scale by ACP Scheme.
- Around 52 posts are proposed to be abolished in the grade of JTO(Civil) to provide some financial savings. Though it is not mandatory to abolish this posts, if it is required for financial matching savings it may be abolished. The JTO(Civil) posts are presently attached to civil units in almost all offices of Telecom stream to assist Estate Management, Asset Management, Planning, Execution of Civil Engineering activities etc. Apart from this existing role of JTO’s they can be employed in the in the other fields such as Personnel section, marketing section, stores section etc. So it is proposed around 170 JTO’s(attached to TDM’s) can be diverted and appointed to the activities mentioned above. Meanwhile, the Civil unit in the ALTTC, Gaziabad may be entrusted with the job devising a suitable training for JTO(Civil) for conversion to JTO(Telecom) cadre.
The restructured units are shown in the ANNEXURE A and a comparative chart showing the cadre strength in all the Engineering cadres in the existing and proposed set up with the resulting savings in finance in the ANNEXURE B.