Employees and executives of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited staged a dharna here on Friday in protest against the proposed divesting of 30 per cent BSNL share and the voluntary retirement scheme.
They said the Centre was planning to sell 30 per cent of BSNL to private companies, which would impair the wellbeing of the public sector enterprise and its revenue could not be used for strengthening the country's infrastructure, particularly in the field of healthcare of rural poor.
Moreover, the country's security would be jeopardised even as the private players in the field of communication could fix exorbitant charges in the absence of the BSNL.
Even as the private companies were planning a rapid expansion programme, the Centre was delaying the final decision on giving millions of new connections, they charged.
“If the demands are not met, we'll commence an indefinite strike from April 20,” the protestors warned.
Tuticorin
Members of the Joint Action Committee of the BSNL Associations and Unions staged a dharna in front of BSNL office here on Friday.
I. Lingabaskar, Chairman, Joint Forum of BSNL, Tuticorin, spoke.
“Adequate steps should be taken to ensure the provision of revised industrial dearness allowance pension to the retirees of the BSNL,” he said. Over 250 members took part in the dharna.
