Executive and non-executive employees of public sector telecom company, BSNL, will go on a one-day strike on December 15, against the national telecom policy (NTP) 2011, the proposed voluntary retirement scheme and withdrawal of medical benefits etc.
On Friday, the non-executive staff will hold a country-wide dharna against the proposal to "retrench, outsource and withdraw benefits" to lakhs of employees. The strike has been called by the Joint Action Committee (JAC), an umbrella organisation of about 12 BSNL unions.
Blaming mismanagement for BSNL's current state, Mr Van Namboodiri, President, JAC, said: "We have given the strike notice today. We feel that BSNL's decline began after the management cancelled procurement of 4.5 crore mobile tenders in 2007 and 9.5 crore mobile tenders in 2010. This led to acute shortage of mobile lines and equipment causing loss of market share and revenue."
The "attempt in the NTP 2011 is to bail out private sector telecom companies at the expense of PSUs -- BSNL and MTNL", a JAC statement said, and added that the private sector sourced equipment from foreign manufacturers, which destroyed domestic R&D as well as led to the country's complete dependence on imported equipment.
BOOST DOMESTIC R&D
Suggesting steps to recharge BSNL, the JAC has suggested alternative measures. To encourage domestic manufacturers, it has suggested increasing the share of local equipment to 80 per cent by 2020.
"China used its internal market forcing all telecom majors to transfer technology to indigenous companies. India, in contrast has lost its indigenous manufacturing capacity in the same period," it said.
It suggested that the National Optical Fibre Cable network be installed, owned and maintained by BSNL, as it had the requisite expertise.
Also, all licences should be unified ones allowing both network and services operations.
Spectrum, a scarce resource, should be allotted at market rates to private operators and free to PSUs to meet social obligations.
"Today, 90 per cent landlines in rural areas have been provided by BSNL. Private operators put together provide only 10 per cent of the lines," the JAC said.