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PM summons Paswan over free phones plan: AFP

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will discuss a controversial plan by Telecommunications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan to hand out 320,000 free phone connections to government employees Saturday.

Paswan's proposed largesse to workers of the Department of Telecommunications comes at a time when the snagged sector is looking to privatisation as a panacea for its ills.

Opponents say it involves a revenue loss of about three billion rupees (68.9 million dollars) in connection fees and another one billion rupees annually in rentals. Paswan argues that the government would get a team of 'motivated' workers in return.

India's telephone density is among the lowest in the world, with only 2.6 lines per hundred people compared to the global average of about 14.5.

Experts say India needs investments of about 70 billion dollars to attain the world average. They also point out that the sector is hugely over-manned, with 20 employees per phone line, or twice as many as in most developed nations.

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