The Hindu Business Line : BSNL employees plan strike on July 11

New Delhi, July 5 Brace up for disruption in telecom services as 3.4 lakh employees of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd have decided to go on a one day strike on July 11 to protest the delay in settling the 45.5-million cellular line contract.

The project has run into uncertainty with the Ministry of Communication insisting that the cost of the contract should be brought under $100 per line while the equipment supplier Ericsson has refused to budge from the quoted amounted of $107. The project was earlier held up after Motorola went to court against BSNL’s decision to disallow the US company from bidding for the contract.

While the court case delayed the project by 6 months, the contract has not been awarded yet despite Motorola withdrawing the case in May.

While BSNL employees were so far limiting their protest to token demonstrations during lunch hours, they are now gearing up for an indefinite strike if the contract is not awarded soon.

“The delay in issuing purchase order of GSM lines has already cost more than Rs 110 crore in the last two months alone. If the purchase order is not issued and new tenders called for, it will take another two years resulting in a loss of more than Rs 30,000 crore. BSNL will not be able to meet the users demand and will be relegated to the bottom. The delay is unjustified,” said Mr V.A.N. Namboodiri, General Secretary, Joint Forum of BSNL & MTNL Unions.

Lunch hour demonstrations will continue on July 6 and 7 and a dharna is being organised on July 9 and 10.

The Forum said that repeated attempts to meet Mr A. Raja, Minister for Communications have been futile. “If the issue is not settled the one-day strike on July 11 will be converted into an indefinite strike,” said Mr Namboodiri.

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