BSNL linemen strike over non-payment of wages

Banking and commercial services in Hazaribag Circle of BSNL, comprising five districts -Hazaribag, Ramgarh, Giridih, Koderma and Chatra - remained paralyzed for the fourth day on Sunday, following indefinite strike by more than 300 daily wage telephone linemen. 

They were protesting against the non-payment of wages for the past six months and retrenchment of some casual workers by the BSNL authorities.

This strike has led to losses worth Rs 400 crore in business. This brought any kind of cash transaction in the banks and other commercial organizations to a grinding halt as BSNL's broadband services remained suspended.

Even the ATMs remained largely inoperative owing to continuous link failure. People had to run from pillar to post for gathering urgent information as more than one lakh mobile phones remained inoperative due to total failure of the BSNL network services. 

BSNL GM Arun Kumar said, "Services were restored after repairing the network system of BSNL near Bishnugarh on NH-100." He alleged sabotage by some of the striking workers on July 25. "After the repair works, the services were restored from July 26 but some of them continued to damage the line," he added.

He, however, said now that there has been a release of funds by higher authorities, the pending wages of the striking workers will be cleared very soon. But they are trying to identify the culprits responsible for damaging the network services as it has been decided to initiate action against them.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/telecom-news/item/2908-bsnl-linemen-strike-over-non-payment-of-wages.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/telecom-news/item/2908-bsnl-linemen-strike-over-non-payment-of-wages.html