Post offices may be franchised

The government on Wednesday ruled out privatisation of postal services but said franchising post office facilities was an option that the department will pursue in future to expand the postal network.

"There is no proposal to privatise postal servcies. Franchising is considered an optimum option to expand the access to basic postal facilities without enhancing dependence on budgetary resources," Minister of State for Communications and IT, Ahmed said in the Lok Sabha.

He added that the department of telecom has set up vigilance telecom monitoring cells in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad to curb the menace of illegal international long distance telephony.

Temporarily, these four VTM cells are monitoring the menace in other cities also, he said adding that a proposal was under process for creation of more such cells in the circles of the country.

Ahmad said India's rural teledensity had increased from 1.49 per cent as on March 31, 2003 to 1.69 per cent as on December 31, 2004.

Admitting to call dropping on BSNL, the Minister said BSNL was expanding its network by 12 million lines in 2005.