ITI union demands merger with BSNL/MTNL

New Delhi, July 24 (UNI) Bangalore based Indian Telephone Industries Employees Union today demanded the company's merger with BSNL/MTNL to solve its problems in the long run.

Alleging there was a hidden agenda to finish off ITI, Union President Michael Fernandes here demanded an in-depth inquiry into the causes of ITI's mounting losses and also into the crashing prices for major items of supply.

ITI had been incurring losses from close to a decade now mainly due to a massive shift from fixed lines to mobile, he said.

The problems had been further increased by the BSNL'S recent circular to all its circles not to place reservation quota orders on ITI, he added.

This was consequent to a letter in February last from US Commerce Seratary objecting to the reservation quota for ITI as it would not be in the interest of American MNCs like Motorola, he claimed.

At present new work could not be taken up simply because there was no capital and finished goods earned losses because of unrealisticly low prices, Mr Fernandes said and added that for the past few years some of the six units of ITI did not have enough work.

He sought an adequate financial support to enbale ITI to produce equipment worth about Rs 4,000 crore during the year.

Mr Fernandes also called for a common research and development for the Indian telecom industry involving C-DOT, ITI and other PSU's direcly or indirectly connected with telecom to match International standards.

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