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Monday, Jul 23, 2007
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Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Monday, Jul 23, 2007 ePaper |
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Telecommunications Info-Tech - Trade & Labour Unions Government - Politics BSNL union to meet Raja on cellular contract
Mr A. Raja
Thomas K. Thomas New Delhi, July 22 Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd’s employees union will meet the Communication Minister, Mr A. Raja, on Tuesday to press its demand on the cellular contract. The union will decide on the date for going on an indefinite strike after that meeting. “Our meeting with the Secretary of Department of Telecom did not help in addressing our concerns. We hope the meeting with the Minister will be fruitful, otherwise we will have no option but to go ahead with our earlier announced indefinite strike,” said Mr V.A.N. Namboodiri, Convener, BSNL union’s joint forum. The employees had earlier withdrawn the strike on July 11 after the Minister assured that the interest of BSNL would be kept in mind. ‘Award entire contract’
The union has now demanded that BSNL should award the contract for the entire 45.5 million cellular lines as was envisaged in the initial tender conditions. Under pressure from the Minister, BSNL was forced to reduce the size of its contract by half to just under 23 million lines. The Joint Forum of BSNL Unions said, “The decision of the BSNL Board to purchase only 22.75 million GSM lines, i.e. 50 per cent of what is originally envisaged, is totally unacceptable. Further the Joint Forum has strongly objected to the decision of the BSNL Board not to purchase the 3G equipments now, but only after announcement of the 3G policy by the Government. This is tantamount to denying BSNL of its much needed technical edge to compete with the private companies.” Union’s stance
They said that the rate offered by Ericsson for the equipment was not exorbitant, in view of its superior technology and BSNL’s vast area of operation. The stance taken by the Union threatens to throw BSNL’s cellular plans completely off track. On one side the Minister wants the deal to be reduced both in terms of size and scope, on the other side the Union wants to go ahead with the initial plan. Equipment vendor Ericsson, which had emerged the lowest bidder, is also not keen to reduce the price. While all parties involved in the row claim to have the interest of BSNL as the top priority, ironically it is just the opposite that is happening.
Related Stories: More Stories on : Telecommunications | Trade & Labour Unions | Politics
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