2007

Indian Telegraph Act 1986 amended to favour private companies.

The government in a move to favour the private telecom companies amended the more than one century old Indian Telegraph Act 1986 by making mobile service also eligible for USO Fund, which will enable them to grab a major portion of the same, which was only paid to BSNL & MTNL earlier for landlines.

GSM Tender issue and Agitational programmes.

Telegram campaign on 26-04-2007 against Infrastructure sharing

The Joint Forum of Unions/Associations in BSNL & MTNL in its meeting held on 17-04-2007 decided to call  all the units to sent Telegrams to the Prime Minister on 26-04-2007 and hold demonstrations on 04-05-2007 against TRAI recommendations on infrastructure sharing of BSNL/MTNL. The telegram campaign was a big success with hundreds of telegrams reaching the Prime Minister. The dharna on 04-05-2007 was massively participated.

The one week relay Dharna from 12^th to 18^th June 2007

The relay dharna was massively participated.

Memorandum to the Communications Minister

A Joint Memorandum by  the Joint Forum of Unions/Associations in BSNL and MTNL was submitted to Shri A.Raja, Minister Communications, on the major issues like immediate tendering for mobile lines and improving the services of BSNL and MTNL. It also indicated that if the tender for 45.5 million lines, which was pending due to court cases filed by the private telecom companies like Motorola and which has been cleared by the court after 2 years should be immediately acted upon by issuing the Advance Purchasing Order (APO) and getting the mobile lines so that the immediate need of the expansion of about 60 million line capacity ( 45.5 million tender + 14.5 million reserve quota to ITI) could be done. It was reported in the press that the government was going to cancel the tender due to pressure from private companies. It was also mentioned that if the government purposely delay the purchase, the workers will be compelled to resort to direct action. The Memorandum was signed by V.A.N.Namboodiri (BSNLEU) & Convener Joint Forum, M.B.Vichare( NFTE), K.Vallinayagam(FNTO),G.L.Jogi( SNEA(I),Prahlad Rai(AIBSNLEA), V.Narayana( BSNLMS),S.V.S.Subrahmanyam( BTEU BSNL),Dhiraj Chaudhary( SNATTA), Satyavir Singh (MTNL MKU), Ram Prasad( MTNL KU),R.C.Chaddha( MTNL SC/ST TEWA),Inderdev Singh( MTNL MS) and S.P.Sharma(BSNLWRU).

The statement of the Communications Minister Shri A.Raja, as reported in the press, which is given below shows, how the government was trying to favour the private manufacturers and creating bottlenecks in the growth of BSNL

“I will not allow BSNL to purchase 45.5. million cellular lines at the rates quoted by the lowest bidder. The rates are too high. If BSNL goes ahead with the tender in the current form and award L-1, the APO will be paying close to Rs. 10,000 crore more unnecessarily.

“A delay was unavoidable in these circumstances. It is important to correct mistakes at any stage even it holds up development.

“It is surprising Motorola, one of the leaders in the world Telecommunication equipments and a firm that supplies 2G and 3G equipments to MTNL, can not qualify technically.”

This created a grave situation with regard to the development of the BSNL.

The agitational programmes

If the tender will be delayed or cancelled, it will cause loss of many thousands of crores of rupees to BSNL and it will be out of race in the mobile market. In fact, BSNL will become almost irrelevant in the mobile sector.

Sensing the deep crisis laden situation, the Joint Forum of BSNL Unions/Associations met and decided to bring the same to the government’s notice. Thousands of telegrams were sent to the Prime Minister and Communications Minister demanding immediate action. It was also decided to organize the following action programmes culminating in strike if suitable action is not taken by the Government.

Badge Wearing Demonstration in front of exchanges/offices on 5^th July 2007 onwards

Massive Dharnas before offices/exchanges on 9^th and 10^th July 2007.

One Day Strike on 11^th July 2007, which will be converted to Indefinite Strike if the issues are not settled.

Demonstrations were organized in front of offices on July 5, 2007 onwards and massive dharnas were conducted on 9^th and 10^th July. Notice had already been issued that if the issue was not settled before 10^th July, the workers will go on Strike on 11^th July 2007. The Strike Notice was signed by the following Unions/Associations:

V.A.N.Namboodiri(BSNLEU) Convener, M.B.Vichare(NFTE), K.Vallinayagam(FNTO), V.Narayana(BSNLMS), Prahlad Rai(AIBSNLEA), G.L.Jogi(SNEA(I), S.P.Sharma(BSNLWRU), S.V.S.Subrahmanyam(BTEU) and V.Subburaman(TEPU)

The Badge wearing, Demonstrations and Dharnas as decided by the Joint Forum were massively organized. The workers actively participated and were ready for any action to save BSNL.