Save BSNL dharna by staff families

Musheerabad: As part of country-wide protest to save nation’s telecom network, BSNL officials and employees, along with their family members, staged protest here at Dharna Chowk on Friday. The protest was called by ‘All unions and associations of BSNL’ of Hyderabad telecom district.
Speaking on the occasion, union leaders raised suspicion that the Central government was deliberately trying to impair BSNL.

Considering the recent decisions of the Central government, it was obvious that the government was favouring private operators such as Airtel, Reliance and Vodafone, they said. It is strange that on one hand government gives loans worth Rs 6 lakh crore to private operators such as Reliance and Airtel which do not have enough assets compared to BSNL, but on the other fails to give Rs 10 lakh crore of loan to BSNL which has assets worth 1.2 lakh crore, they said.

In view of increasing demand for high speed internet services, BSNL asked the government for 4G spectrum but was denied while the private operators were given 4G spectrum two years ago. The decision to start mobile services by BSNL has resulted in reduction of rates of telecom services. BSNL is the only operator which provides its services even during national calamities with its wide network and assets, they said.

In fact, the Central government has itself declared in its telecom policy 2012 that services of BSNL are essential in the interests of national security and in dealing with matters of international importance. 14th Finance commission too declared BSNL as most important public sector company, they said.Union leaders alleged that the government is trying to privatize the company by deliberately forcing it to incur losses and therefore has rejected the employee demands for implementation of wage revision which has been pending since 2017.

In the absence of a public sector company in telecom, private operators such as Airtel and Reliance would raise telecom rates once they get control over 30 per cent of the market, they warned. Stressing on the need to save BSNL, they said that it is essential in matters of internal security and safety of information. The information needs of backward areas would be neglected by the private operators in the absence of BSNL as they work with sole criteria of earnings, they opined.

BSNL unions have decided to go on three-day nationwide strike from February 18 to 20 to press their demands related to wage revision, providing 4G spectrum to BSNL and development of the company. The union leaders made an appeal to all sections of people and various political parties to support their agitation to save BSNL. Among those who participated in the protest include Mohan Reddy, Subash Rao, VK Murthy, Ramesh, Anjaiah, Padma, Sunitha and others.