The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Visakhapatnam News : Higher FDI in telecom sector opposed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 23, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam

Higher FDI in telecom sector opposed

By Our Special Correspondent

VISAKHAPATNAM, MARCH 22. The proposal to hike the FDI in the Telecom sector from 49 per cent to 74 per cent will adversely affect the interests of the country and, most importantly, its security, the general secretary of the BSNL Employees Union (BSNLEU), V.A.N. Namboodiri, has said. ``Even well-advanced countries like America and Canada did not allow FDI beyond 25 per cent or 30 per cent for the reason that their security would be affected,'' he said at a press conference here on Tuesday.

Mr. Namboodiri, who was in the city to participate in the two-day fourth anniversary celebrations of the BSNLEU, spoke on several other issues concerning the BSNL and demanded that the Reliance Infocom, which had not paid the Access Deficit Charges (ADC) to a tune of Rs. 2,000 crores, should be made to pay penalty. Also, its licence should be cancelled and criminal proceedings launched against it, he said. The trade union wanted the Government to utilise the Universal Service Obligation fund to cover up the loss being incurred by the BSNL in providing telephone connectivity to rural areas every year.

Regarding employees' problems, he asked the Government to resume recruitment as the employees' strength had been reduced to half of what it was a few years ago, and bring the pay scale to the level of Navaratnas.

The BSNLEU along with other trade unions would organise a protest programme all over the country on March 29 with the demands and would launch a country-wide agitation at a later date if the demands were not conceded.

`Save BSNL'

Addressing a press conference along Mr. Namboodiri, the secretary of the district committee of the BSNL Employees Union, G.S.N. Raju, said here on Tuesday that the trade union's main agenda was "Save BSNL''. If the organisation did well, the employees would also benefit, he said. Regarding local issues, he wanted the services in the Visakhapatnam Telecom District improved by opening a round-the-clock Customer Service Centre as first priority. The work on construction of the administrative building of the District Telecom General Manager's office should commence without any further delay as the location of offices in one building would avoid a lot of inconvenience to customers as well as employees, he said.

The secretaries of the BSNLEU's district units of East Godavari and West Godavari, P. Maheswara Rao and M.V.N. Koteswara Rao, respectively, the district secretary of the All-India Telecom SC and ST Employees Welfare Association, T. Vijaya Babu, spoke.

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