The Hindu : Karnataka News : ‘Centre has promised to study ITI, BSNL merger’

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Friday, Jun 27, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

‘Centre has promised to study ITI, BSNL merger’

Special Correspondent

The employees’ union has submitted a plan in this regard

Bangalore: The UPA Government has promised to look into the merger proposal of ITI with the BSNL, according to the ITI Employees’ Union (Bangalore).

Former Minister and adviser to the union, A. Krishnappa, told presspersons here on Thursday that the ITI Officers and Employees’ Associations of Bangalore, Palakkad, Naini, Rae Bareily, Mankapur and Jammu and Kashmir units had submitted a proposal to the Union Government seeking the merger of the units with BSNL.

Landed property

The memorandum, submitted nine months ago, explained how such a move would help strengthening BSNL against private operators in the telephone-mobile phone industry.

Besides, it would save landed property worth over Rs, 1,000 crore of the ITI units and give a new lease of life to over 13,500 employees.

A union delegation met the Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology A. Raja and the Minister of State for IT and Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia on June 19 and urged them to prevent the popular public sector undertaking from slipping into the hands of the multinational corporations, Mr. Krishnappa said.

Meeting

Mr. Krishnappa, a former ITI employee, said that the delegation also met the All-India Congress Commitee president Sonia Gandhi and explained to her the need to preserve ITI.

All the units had been in a commanding position in the Indian telephone sector, and therefore, the company would not be a liability to the BSNL, he said.

Even if one went by the futuristic view on manpower, the number of employees in ITI would come down to 5,000 by 2015.

The Bangalore unit spread over 436 acres had 3,000 employees.

Amount disbursed

The turnover was Rs. 1,818 crore and only Rs. 362 crore was being disbursed towards salary and perks.

The UPA Government had saved the unit from closure by releasing Rs.1,345 crore at the behest of Ms. Gandhi, following the employees demand in 2004, Mr. Krishnappa said.

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