New Delhi, Nov 26: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) Employees Union today strongly resisted the proposed move of the Centre to disinvest 20 per cent government stake in state-run telecom firm and demanded the government to drop the proposal, failing which they will launch a general strike.

The proposal mooted by BSNL management to disinvest 20 per cent stake, if true as reported by some newspapers, is unwarranted and will be stoutly opposed by entire workers of BSNL, a statement said.

Earlier, there was a proposal for disinvestment of 10 per cent stake, on which the 3,20,000 workers went for a strike, which was deferred after the government gave an assurance that there was no proposal to privatise BSNL.

Disinvestment of BSNL will be the first step towards its privatisation, which was seen in the case of VSNL (Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd), which was handed over to Tata for a mere Rs 1,320 crore, when the company had a liquid cash worth more than Rs 12,000 crore, the statement added.

BSNL is financially strong and have been graded excellent for its performance over the last two years and very good for a year towards dividend, lincence fee, taxes and many more. Its market share has gone down during the last few months due to non-availability of mobile lines to provide because of court cases and many more, but this is going to be solved when the 22 million GSM lines will be available within one or two months.


UNI