The nationwide 48-hour-long strike by employees and officers of the BSNL that began on Tuesday was total in the district on the first day. Counters at all BSNL offices remained closed. The strike is under the banner of a joint forum comprising six unions.
Convener of the forum C. Muraleedharan Pillai said the strike was in protest against moves by the Central government to privatise the BSNL.
Profit
In 1986, the communications wing was severed from the Department of Communications to create the VSNL and the MTNL. In 2000, the BSNL was created.
But in 1999, the VSNL was sold to Tata at a time when it was making maximum profits. Forty six per cent of the shares of MTNL were also sold. Mr. Pillai said till 2007, the BSNL registered handsome profits.
But in the subsequent years, the BSNL could not cash in on the mobile phone sector boom because it was prevented from investing in the sector.
This gave the leverage for private service providers to monopolise the sector.
The move can only be seen as deliberate in order to push the BSNL into losses and, under that ground, facilitate the handing over of BSNL into private hands, Mr. Pillai alleged. But the private sector is keen only in providing service to urban areas whereas the BSNL operates without differentiating rural and urban areas, he said.
