Tarana satisfied with her division's 90-day performance

Tarana Halim, state minister of the posts and telecommunications division, has expressed satisfaction over the division's performance in the first 90 days since she took office.

All five companies and two other organisations under her division were able to meet targets with some exceptions, she said at a press meet at her office yesterday.

Companies like Teletalk and Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd (BSCCL) failed to meet some of their targets, Tarana said.

She criticised the organisations that failed to attain expected results set by the ministry. "I am dissatisfied with their performances. However, they need some more time to show improvements."

State-owned Telephone Shilpa Sangstha Ltd assembled 1,768 laptops in the last three months, up from the target of 1,700.

The company also produced 18,370 mobile chargers and 15,300 mobile batteries in the time. The ministry will now set the next agendas, said Tarana.

The state minister said 750 e-post centres are going to begin operation from the end of this month.

She sought cooperation from the industry people to make the Digital Bangladesh campaign a success.

"All the targets that were fixed were pretty ordinary and achievable, and whoever failed to fulfil those will have to be answerable," Tarana said, in response to a query. "Next time, I will give them targets that will also be approved by the prime minister."

BSCCL targeted to increase use of 15 Gbps of bandwidth in the country, but failed; Teletalk targeted to sell 6.8 lakh new SIMs, but they hardly sold 5 lakh, she added.

Both the managing directors of the companies tried to justify their positions at the press meet.