BSNL staff stage protest

The employees of Bharat Sanchar Nigam today staged a demonstration against the proposed disinvestment of public sector undertakings including BSNL. The protest was organised outside the Bharat Nagar exchange.

Addressing the protestors,Balbir Singh,circle secretary of the union,said,“The move of the government to disinvest 10% shares of BSNL through IPO is unwarranted as BSNL has a bank reserve of Rs 37,000 crore. So there is no neeed of borrowing money from the market through IPO. The government will not give single rupee to BSNL and will use the money to reduce the union budget deficit only.”

While Balwinder Singh,district secretary of the union,said,”The IPO will neither serve Indian people nor the employees of BSNL. We have experiences of MTNL,which is struggling to survive inspite of disinvestment. The same will happen to BSNL.The public sectors are the back-bone of Indian economy.”

Jasbir Singh,district secretary of SNEA(1) and MS Dhaliwal,district secretary of All India BSNL Executive Association said that the government’s arguement that BSNL profits were declining was totally baseless.’