People's Democracy

Successful Nationwide Strike of BSNL Employees

MORE than 3 lakh workers have gone on strike on July 11 demanding immediate supply of GSM lines and infrastructure for providing service to the huge demand of the people waiting for the BSNL mobiles.

The entire capacity of BSNL to give mobile connections has already been utilised by March 2007. BSNL was unable to provide even nominal connections during the last three months rendering it sliding down to the fourth position in mobile section.

The purchase of 45.5 million GSM lines of 2G/3G technology announced with much fare by the then minister of Communication has been unduly delayed due to various reasons including a court case. The court case was over two months back. The intolerable delay will sound a death knell of BSNL unless immediate action is taken. Not only that BSNL is unable to provide new connections, but also its relevance in telecom sector itself will be questionable unless immediate action is taken.

It is with this sole demand of serving the people and saving BSNL and its workers, the strike was organised. The workers have implemented the call of the Joint Forum for strike in a massive way. Almost all the offices / exchanges were closed without any staff. Joint Forum congratulates the workers who have made the strike a complete success. We request the people to bear with the difficulties considering the fact that the action is taken for a common cause.