The board members of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) have given an approval to divest 30% government stake in the company. The divestment will be made in multiple stages.

The idea of divestment of government stake in the telecom company was a suggestion given by Sam Pitroda committee, which is the telecom and infrastructure advisor to the Prime Minister.

The Pitroda committee is a three member panel including Sam Pitroda, the HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh and Union telecom secretary P J Thomas.

However, the board's decision to clear the proposal for divestment of stake is still subject to approval from the Union Government.

The board of BSNL also accepted a few other recommendations by the Pitroda committee including the idea of reducing its staff strength of 300,000 by one third. Also the board has agreed to the suggestion of hiring the top management on a contract basis and having separate professionals to fill in the position of Managing Director and CEO. The company will also be forming an advisory board.

The state owned telecom giant's employees have opposed its decision of divestment of government stake and the proposed reduction of the staff. The employees have said to take their opposition at a bigger level and make countrywide demonstrations against the decision.