STIR:BSNL employees staging a demonstration in Tuticorin on Tuesday.
TIRUNELVELI: Protesting the Ministry of Telecommunication's proposal to sell the stakes of public sector undertaking Bharath Sanchar Nigam Limited to the foreign companies and pressing other demands, officials and employees commenced their indefinite strike on Tuesday.
After the Union Government decided in favour of divesting the BSNL stakes and sell them to private firms, particularly from foreign countries, the BSNL officials and employees raised a banner of revolt against the move. When the Ministry of Telecom reportedly delayed the floating of tenders for the procurement of sophisticated equipment for augmenting the mobile phone capacity, the trade unions alleged that this “calculated move” would strangulate the BSNL, as it would only benefit private operators.
The warring trade unions also said the government's move to send out more than a lakh workers of the BSNL under the voluntary retirement scheme would badly affect the quality of service being rendered to the public.
During the demonstration held on the premises of BSNL General Manager's Office here on Tuesday, the protestors raised slogans against the Centre's attempt to privatise the public sector enterprise by selling its shares. They also demanded the Telecom Ministry to float tenders for the procurements of hi-tech gadgets for augmenting mobile phone connections.
Trade union office-bearers Soosai Maria Antony, Ramakrishnan, Nainar and others participated in the demonstration. Of the 653 BSNL workers and officials in the rural Tirunelveli, 602 participated in the strike while 590 of the 620 BSNL employees and officials in Tirunelveli and Palayamkottai areas abstained from duty. Similar protest was organised in Tuticorin also.
In the evening, the trade union activists informed the media that the strike had been called off, as the Union Government accepted some of their “major demands.”
Nagercoil
The employees of BSNL abstained from their duties to urge the Government to find out an early solution to their multi-point charter of demands. More than 700 employees participated in the agitation. Chella Subramaniam, co-ordinator of the employees' association, led the agitation.
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