The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
(BSNL) authorities affirmed on Wednesday that its services in the
Northeast have not being affected by the three-day nationwide strike
called by the employees of the telecom company.
The authorities
based in Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura said that there were no
significant affect or trouble in the services since Monday in the seven
northeastern states, excluding Sikkim.
However, Sankar Bardhan, a
Tripura-based leader of the All India Unions and Associations of BSNL
(AUAB) which called for the strike, said that the agitating employees in
support of their demands organized demonstrations and protest rallies
in the entire region.
The AUAB’s demands include allotment of the
4G spectrum to BSNL, return of over Rs one lakh crore properties to the
Department of Telecommunications (DoT), benefits to executives under the
3rd Pay Revision Committee with 15 per cent fitment and to
non-executives according to the 8th wage negotiations from January 1,
2017, and revision of pension for BSNL retirees from January 1, 2017.
According to Bardhan, over 90 per cent of the 6,000 employees and executives of telecom major participated in the strike.
There
are three BSNL circles in the seven northeastern states — NE Circle One
(Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram), NE Circle Two (Arunachal Pradesh,
Manipur and Nagaland) and the Assam Circle.
