PANJIM: The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has decided to postpone its proposal of ‘Exit Plan of Printed Bills by Post’ after civic consumers group GOACAN alleged that the short notice would put over one lakh consumers to great hardship.
BSNL’s Principal General Manager Yogesh Chandra Mishra has confirmed the development citing suggestions and objection from different forums and individuals. The Goa Sanchar Bhavan has however not decided on any fresh date of implementation.
GOACAN had recommended implementing the Exit Plan of Printed Bills by Post from the new financial year, and to start its preparation by asking all BSNL consumers to submit their mobile numbers and email ids in the next three months. It has also sought activating awareness campaign through all Telephone Exchanges and Customer Service Centres (CSCs).
“Carry detailed instructions on the printed bills issued on January 3, February 2 and March 3, 2019 so that consumers are well prepared to be part of the Exit Plan and the same can be implemented with the least difficulties. All BSNL landline consumers who are senior citizens can identify themselves so that special care can be taken by BSNL to note their option of communication for billing details either by SMS, WhatsApp or Email,” the recommendation submitted to the BSNL office with a copy to its main branches, State government and Consumer Protection Council had stated further.
Supporting the proposal as a positive step to save paper and money spent on postage, the civic group while had sought for proper planning and awareness. “The present proposal of BSNL for Goa is sought to be rolled out by January 1, 2019 with hardly a week’s notice. Moreover, this week is the festive week of Christmas and the New Year wherein consumers are on holiday and have not received any official communication from the BSNL Office,” the forum’s coordinator Roland Martins had said.
