The Hindu Business Line : BSNL union defers strike till September

The decision was taken after Communication and IT Minister, Mr A. Raja, gave concrete proposals to keep intact BSNL’s cellular expansion plans. The proposals include giving supply orders to BSNL’s existing vendors as a stop gap measure to address the immediate crunch in capacity and then subsequently issuing a fresh order for 75 million lines by the end of the year. BSNL has also been allowed to procure the core equipment for third generation services before the Government policy is announced.

“Considering the assurances given by the Minister, we have decided to put off the strike until September. We will wait and watch how these promises are implemented. We will meet again to evaluate the progress,” said Mr V.A.N. Namboodiri, Convener of BSNL union’s joint forum.

The union had earlier threatened to go on indefinite strike after the BSNL board, acting on the advice of Mr Raja, reduced the contract size of its cellular project from 45.5 million lines to 23 million lines. The union had demanded that the contract size should be restored to 45.5 million lines as BSNL was losing market share to private operators. The Minister, however, defended the intervention on the grounds that the tendering process carried out by BSNL was flawed. Mr Raja had questioned BSNL’s decision to disqualify Motorola from the bidding process and the high price quoted by Ericsson, the lowest bidder. Ericsson has another week to decide whether they want to accept the revised order from BSNL. DoT officials said the Minister has asked BSNL to make a contingency plan in case Ericsson refuses the order.

The BSNL union’s decision, based on these assurances, comes as a breather to Mr Raja who will be attending the upcoming Parliament session as Minister for Communication for the first time.

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