The blame game on the call drops issue reached a new level on Wednesday with Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad blaming the previous Congress-led government for turning State-run companies such as BSNL and MTNL into loss-making entities.

On Tuesday, the Congress General Secretary Shakeel Ahmed had blamed Prasad for his ‘incompetence’ in dealing with call drops and and called for his immediate sacking from the Cabinet. Prasad hit back at the Congress, blaming the “legacy” of the previous government for the losses being faced by BSNL and MTNL, leaving the customers to bear the brunt.

“The problem of call drops is a legacy left behind by the previous government that we have got in our term. I am only cleaning the mess left by them,” Prasad told reporters.

Not only BSNL and MTNL, the country’s entire telecom network had suffered because of lack of network optimisation and other solutions, leading to call drops, he said.

Prasad said it was the National Democratic Alliance-government that had provided more spectrum and freed up of air waves from the defence sector for telecom service providers (TSPs). Prasad said the problem of call drops will improve by October-end, as various steps have already been taken for the same.

Call drop rates for Bharti Airtel, which were varying from 3.01 per cent to 17.77 per cent in Delhi, had been reduced to 0.1- 2.96 per cent. The company is also installing new mobile towers. Aircel has installed sites at AIIMS, Bikaner House and 12 other locations in Delhi.

“We are constantly monitoring the situation. The department is taking pro-active steps to reduce call drops,” he said.

Asked about incentives to customers and penalties to TSPs if call drops continue, Prasad said: “Why not? Anything in favour of customer satisfaction and improvement of the system is always good.”

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