Thousands of BSNL employees going on a two-day strike from April 21
BSNL employees protest outside Anna Salai telephone office on Tuesday (Photo: DC)
Chennai: With thousands of BSNL employees going on a two-day strike from April 21, numerous subscribers who went to the customer service centres in exchanges across the city were shocked to see the offices locked besides the cheque deposit machine counter also closed.Customer service centres, including Dams road exchange, Teynampet, and Guindy Industrial Estate were locked and boards with demands of the protesters placed in front of the gate.
K. Chandrasekhar, who had come to the Guindy Industrial Estate service centre, said that he had come to the office to change his faulty SIM card but now as the office would remain closed for the next two days, he would not be able to call his relatives abroad. “Even though BSNL employees claim that the protest is to save BSNL they could have used other ways like wearing black straps or carry boards with protest messages in their offices but now they have put consumers to hardship,” he said.
It was not only Chandrasekhar but several others too who wanted to file complaints for faulty landline phones but had to feel the heat. “My landline phone is not working for the past one week even after repeated complaints to the call centre so I thought I will meet the engineer today to get things sorted out. As the office is closed I am left with no other option but to wait for a couple of days more,” T. Sundaramurthy, another subscriber, said.
BSNL Employees Union Chennai circle president M. Kanniappan, said that the protest was not to put customers to inconvenience but to make the Union government save BSNL and provide more convenience to its consumers.
“The Union government has to refund Universal Service Obligation fund to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore to BSNL towards rural landline services, which they have not done so far. By 2002, BSNL received a total of Rs12,000 crore per year as access deficit charge from other service providers but now Trai has stopped it. These issues made us go for the protest as we have to save the PSU,” he said.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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