Date:11/11/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/11/stories/2006111102291300.htm

National

Nothing finalised: Jyoti Basu

Special Correspondent

Kolkata: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) leadership is considering whether the information technology sector should be considered an essential service.

"Nothing has yet been finalised but that the IT sector should be treated an essential service has been suggested for the time being," veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu said here on Friday after a meeting of the party's State Secretariat.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was in favour of the sector being treated an essential service, though the State leadership of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions has been maintaining that the sector could not be considered as one in the manner of hospitals, for instance, are.

The CITU, however, has noted that that there are certain units in the IT industry with a "continuous work process".

A nation-wide strike had been called on December 14 by Left trade unions and other mass organisations against the Centre's economic policies.

Mr. Basu said the CITU leadership would take a decision on whether the sector in the State would be brought within the purview of the coming strike on December 12.

Though he supports the right of IT sector employees to form an association, Mr. Basu said, "if the employees go on strike, the norms followed in the essential services on such an occasion should be abided by."

The CITU was discussing the matter with the employees' representatives.

Mr. Basu also said the Nepal Maoists' decision to be part of the new government in that country was "very good news."

The CPI (M) Polit Bureau was keeping abreast of the developments in Nepal, he said, adding that "the Deputy Prime Minister [of Nepal] was to have come to the city to meet both me and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee but for some reason did not come".