NEW DELHI: The Indian Telephone Industry (ITI) Employees' Union has sought an inquiry into the causes of the ITI's mounting losses and crashing prices for the major items of supply.

``The 5 per cent lowering of prices in the past five years appears to be suspicious and it is possible there may be a deliberate intention behind this,'' Micheal Fernandes, union president told reporters here on Monday.

ITI Ltd. was the first public sector undertaking set up in 1948 and was now in the throes of a battle for survival, and the workers' union and associations were forced to take the issue to the streets if the Government failed to provide it immediately with adequate and justified support to overcome the crisis thrust upon it, Mr. Fernandes said. Some of the six units of the ITI did not have enough work, the available orders could not be executed for want of working capital and the produce were incurring losses because of unrealistic and low prices, he added.

The union has demanded the merger of the ITI with the BSNL and MTNL to overcome the problems. It sought adequate financial support to enable the ITI to produce equipment worth about Rs. 4,000 crore during the year.

It seeks to set up a common research and development for the telecom sector involving C-DOT, ITI and other public sector units to elevate Indian telecom technology to world class.

BSNL circular

Mr. Fernandes drew attention to the BSNL's recent circular to all its circles not to place reservation quota orders on ITI.

This follows a letter in February from the U.S. Commerce Secretary objecting to the quota system as it would not be in the interest of the multinational companies such as Motorola of the U.S.

``While this U.S. interference in our country's internal affairs deals a fatal blow to the very existence of the ITI, the practice of getting ITI to supply quantities defaulted by irresponsible bidders is sapping the little life that is still left,'' he added.

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