M A I N   N E W S

Cell phone services hit
Tribune News Service and PTI

NEW DELHI, Sept 7 — Communications networks in many parts of the country went out of order as the indefinite strike by a section of telecom employees demanding settlement of labour issues before corporatisation of the DTS entered the second day today.

The telecom services throughout the country continued to function without hitches today and the Bharatiya Telecom Employees Federation pulled out of the strike late last night.

On intelligence reports indicating chances of sabotage of networks in the coming days, Home Ministry has directed state police authorities to lend support to telecom authorities in maintaining the exchanges, a ministry statement said.

With the deadlock persisting, no negotiations took place after the BMS-controlled Bharatiya Telecom Employees Federation (BTEF) claiming a strength of 80,000 employees pulled out from the strike late last night having reached an understanding with the authorities.

The Federation of National Telecom Organisation (FNTO) and the National Federation of Telecom Employees (NFTE), however, were not party to the last night negotiations and were not invited, Secretary General of NFTE, O.P. Gupta told PTI.

Officials monitoring the networks said networks problems had been reported from many parts of the country, but strict vigil was being maintained. Many of the cellular operators have reported connectivity problem with DTS networks.

However, the strike had no impact on the national Capital and Mumbai as telecom network in these cities were handled by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL).

Talking tough, the Communications Minister, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan termed the strike as “unjust and uncalled for” and said “strike and negotiations cannot go together”.

The highlight of the agreement between the BTEF and the government, Mr Paswan said was that when the DTO and DTS would be corporatised, it would be asked to pay Rs 1,000 per month on an ad hoc basis to the employees who would opt for joining the corporation when it came into existence next month. Subsequently, this would be adjusted against the new pay scales of the PSU.

While taking a major initiative such as the corporatisation, Mr Paswan said it was natural that certain insecurities and apprehensions would crop up.

He said the government had addressed these problems through dialogue and other institutional mechanisms to bestow full security and confidence among the workers.