GUWAHATI: More than a lakh employees and officers working with the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) have started the three-day nation-wide strike highlighting their long pending issues including the allocation of 4G spectrum to the public sector telecom entity and wage revision.
The strike had been called by All Unions and Associations of BSNL (AUAB) on Monday midnight and will continue till January 20.
BSNL authorities said on Wednesday that its services in the Northeast have remained unaffected amid the three-day nationwide strike.
The massive participation of workers in various circles of BSNL conveys a strong message to the center which has been constantly trying to destabilize the Public Sector Undertaking (PSU).
Along with the strike call, AUAB has put forward an eight-point charter of demands. Allocation of 4G spectrum to BSNL is the primary one in the demand charter. Though the private operators were allotted 4G spectrum in October 2016 itself, BSNL is still waiting for the 4G spectrum. The absence of 4G services reduces the competency, and it may eventually lead to the dismantling of BSNL.
Other demands by the employees include payment of pension contribution by BSNL as per the government rule, approval for BSNL’s Land Management Policy without any delay, scrapping of BSNL’s outsourcing for the operation and maintenance of its mobile towers etc.
