BSNL employees stage protest

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, July 27:  Employees of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) on Thursday staged a protest on the office premises here at Panbazar demanding pay revision according to the recommendations of the third pay revision committee.

P Abimayu, convener of the BSNL Employees’ Union, said as per the recommendations, pay should be revised with effect from January 1, 2017. Furthermore, retired employees should get pension benefits as per the recommendations, he said.

The Government formed the 3rd Pay Revision Committee headed by justice (Retired) Satish Chandra for this purpose.   “We have been demanding implementation of the recommendations at the earliest, but it has been delayed by several months,” he said.  He alleged that tenders floated by BSNL to procure 93 million line mobile equipments were cancelled one after another by the government to benefit the private telecom companies. Abimayu said that cancellation of tender is a severe blow for BSNL.  “As a result of this blockade created by the government in the procurement of equipments, BSNL was not able to take advantage of the exponential growth witnessed in the mobile segment, during this period,” said a protesting official of BSNL.

BSNL magement started procurement of equipments from 2013 onwards and thereafter, significant improvement has been made to the BSNL’s quality of services. As a result of all these efforts, a significant change has come in the fincial position of the company, said BSNL employees in a statement.  BSNL had incurred Rs691 crore operatiol loss in the year 2013-14, whereas it earned an operatiol profit of Rs672 crore in 2014-15 and Rs3, 854 crore in the year 2015-16. “Even in the midst of cut-throat competition from Reliance Jio, BSNL is adding 20 lakh new mobile customers every month. BSNL is sure to become a profit-making PSU within next 2-3 years,” the statement said.

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