Under the aegis of Joint Action Committee of Association/Union of
Executives and Non Executives North East-II telecom circle-BSNL, BSNL
employees in Nagaland took out a protest march here on Thursday
demanding rollback of Subsidiary Tower Company (STC).
Altogether around 140 employees
of BSNL took part in the rally that began from the area manager BSNL
office, New Minister Hill and ended at Raj Bhavan, where a memorandum
was submitted to Nagaland Governor, P.B. Acharya.
According to joint convener of
JAC of Associations and Unions of BSNL, Kelhoungunyu Neiu Vizo, the
memorandum signed by circle secretaries stated that the decision of the
government to form a subsidiary tower company of the PSU was seriously
agitating the minds of the employees, as hiving off 66,800 BSNL mobile
towers to STC would jeopardise the future of BSNL and its employees.
The memorandum, also shared
with the media, stated that about 1.25 lakh mobile base transceiver
stations (BTS) were installed on these towers and that the decision of
the Union cabinet that STC would function under the control of BSNL
management was violated with the appointment of an IAS officer as the
chairman and managing director of the STC, without the knowledge of the
BSNL board. Alleging that formation of STC was nothing but to deprive
BSNL of its tower assets, the employees warned that the existing mobile
services and its future expansion plans would be seriously affected by
such decision.
They said that it was a
considered opinion of BSNL unions and associations that formation of STC
would be detrimental to the PSU and ultimately culminate in its
privatisation through the route of strategic sale that would ruin its
future.
Reiterating their strong
opposition to formation of STC, the unions appealed to the Governor to
recommend to Government of India to take immediate steps to roll back
the decision for saving BSNL.
Meanwhile, PRO Raj Bhavan said
that the Governor had assured the BSNL unions and associations to
forward the memorandum to the concern authority.
