Telecom stir evokes poor response

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 28. The one-day, nation-wide token strike by the telecom employees today failed to produce much of an impact with a large number of employees unions and associations backing out at the last minute in response to an appeal from the Communications Minister on Tuesday.

Though the impact of the strike was marginal at the national level, telecom services were particularly hit in the Assam Circle, North- East and to an extent in Kerala. However, both the Government and the employees unions behind the stir, made contradictory claims on the strike's success.

By and large the strike called by the six unions of the Department of Telecom Services and one of the MTNL to protest against the decision on corporatisation was peaceful. No major incident was reported.

Official sources claimed that the telecom services in the country functioned normally. Reports from various circles reaching the headquarters here indicated that there was hardly any impact with long distance phone lines providing uninterrupted services to the subscribers. However, they did concede that these services were hit partially in Assam, North-East and Kerala as auto or manual services were paralysed as a result of 30 to 40 per cent of the staff staying away from work.

Contrary to official stand, the unions which had organised the strike asserted that over two lakh telecom employees throughout the country had taken part in the agitation. The strike, they claimed, was total in Assam, North-East, West Bengal, Calcutta Telephones, Kerala, Andaman-Nicobar Islands, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Also a majority of telecom employees in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra had joined the strike.

In Kerala, employees belonging to other unions which had disassociated themselves from the strike call also participated.

The leaders of the striking employees, addressing a rally at Eastern Court in the Capital, warned the Government that they would intensify the agitation and call an indefinite strike in August if the issues raised by them were not discussed and settled by then.

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