BSNL employees observe strike in HP

Shimla, July 11 (UNI) The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) employees today observed a day-long strike in Himachal Pradesh in protest over the Centre's delay in finalising a global tender to procure 45.5 million GSM connections.

Employees of the country's largest telecom company stayed away from their offices today across the state following a nationwide call for the strike by its nine unions.

The strike, which began at 0600 hrs in the morning and would continue till evening, did not affect telecom services in the state, circle general of the executive employee union Hira Lal Sayal told UNI here.

If the Union Government did not acced to their demands, the BSNL employee unions would go on an indefinite strike, he said.

The strike was a complete success with over 90 to 95 per cent employees staying away from their work, Mr Sayal claimed.

A senior state BSNL officer, requesting anonymity, told UNI here that the attendance in the offices was quite low, even as the telecom services remained unaffected in the state.

However, the strike was peaceful and no untoward incident was reported from anywhere in the state during the day.

In Shimla, the telecom employees took out a rally in the main bazar and raised slogans against the Union Telecom Minister for failing to fulfil the BSNL's global tenders for GSM connections.

Reports of BSNL employees observing one-day strike were also received from other parts of the state.

UNI