The Hindu Business Line : CPI(M) mulling `essential service' tag for IT sector

The leadership of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is considering whether the information technology sector should be considered an essential service.

"Nothing has yet been finalised but that the IT sector should be treated an essential service has been suggested for the time being," the veteran Marxist leader, Mr Jyoti Basu, said here on Friday after a meeting of the State Secretariat of the party.

The Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has been in favour of the IT sector being treated as an essential service even though the State leadership of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions has been maintaining that the sector could not be considered as one in the manner hospitals, for instance, are. The CITU, however, has noted that that there are certain units in the IT industry with a "continuous work process".

The question of whether the IT sector should be treated an essential service has become particularly relevant in view of the nation-wide strike called by Left trade unions and other mass organisations against the Centre's economic policies on December 14.

Mr Basu said a decision on whether the IT sector in the State would be brought within the purview of the coming strike would be taken by the CITU leadership on December 12.

Though the right of employees in the IT sector to form an association has been supported by Mr Basu, he said that "if the employees go on strike, the norms followed in the essential services on such an occasion should be abided by." The CITU was discussing the matter with the employees' representatives, he said.

Mr Basu also said that the decision of the Maoists in Nepal to be part of the new Government in that country was "very good news".

The CPI (M) Polit Bureau was keeping abreast of the developments in Nepal, he said, adding that "the Deputy Prime Minister (of Nepal) was to have come to the city to meet both me and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee but for some reason did not come."