The BSNL executive and non-executive officers, numbering over three lakh, will go on an indefinite strike from February 26 in protest against the proposal to divest ten per cent stake of the company.

The Joint Forum of BSNL Unions/Associations of Non-executives and Executives, announcing the strike call, said here that the unions had deferred the indefinite strike in July last after Communications Minister A Raja as well as the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited management had assured them that the GSM lines would be made available to BSNL for providing mobile connections to people and fresh tenders for 50- 60 million GSM lines would be floated in August.

“These assurances were not implemented and as a result, BSNL has been unable to provide any substantial mobile connections in the last six months.

This has resulted in BSNL’s position in the mobile sector going down from the second to the fourth position,” the joint forum convenor V A N Namboodiri said.

The forum said the announcement on Monday that ten per cent share of BSNL would be disvested through the IPO route for development and expansion had come as a shock to the workers since the Communications Minister and the BSNL management had given assurances that there was no proposal for any divestment of BSNL.

‘No justification’

The forum further said that there was no justification for divestment of BSNL on the plea of development and expansion since it had a cash balance of more than Rs 40,000 crore, which could be used for the purpose.

“Workers are fully aware that even ten per cent of disinvestment is the first step towards privatisation, a route already taken in the case of VSNL, which is now a Tata company,” Mr Namboodiri said.

Navaratna status

The forum has also been demanding provision of GSM lines, grant of Navaratna status to BSNL, withdrawal of “arbitrary” orders on pension, ensuring financial viability to BSNL and absorption of ITS officers.

It said BSNL workers would also observe January 21 as a protest day wearing black badges and organising demonstrations in front of offices.