New Delhi, March 14 -- The government has released pending dues of Rs 171 crore to cash-strapped MTNL for paying February salaries to employees, a senior official said.

On the other hand, BSNL will clear salary dues of around Rs 850 crore by March 20 from its internal accruals.

Both companies have failed to pay salaries of their employees for last month, according to employees' representatives.

BSNL Chairman and MD Anupam Shrivastava said the company expects internal accruals of around Rs 850 crore in this month and the entire amount will be used for disbursal of salaries.

"There will be no pending amount following this disbursal," he said.

The company has informed its employee representatives that the disbursal of salaries would be ...