50,000 telephones go dead in Ahmedabad

About 50,000 telephones went dead in the city on Friday, as the all India strike of Telecom employees entered its third day. Services of five exchanges of the city were severely affected with Telecom staff remaining away from routine work.

Telephones connected to the Shahibaug, Narayanpura, Railwaypura, Naranpura, Bapunagar and Vasna went dead on Friday when employees did not attend essential services in the exchanges. Union leaders said Bhadra exchange too will stop functioning from tomorrow.

Telephones, including those of the Police Commissioner’s office, the District Court and other Government buildings were dead since Friday afternoon.

While 21,000 of the 24,000 odd Telecom employees have been on strike since Wednesday(the BTEU has withdrawn from the strike because of its allegiance to the Bharatiya Janta Party), about 50,000 of the total 4.5 lakh connections were affected.

In addition, all telegram facilities, telex, fax, billing and even Internet services were affected because of the strike.

All India Telegraph Traffic Ministerial Union circle president J.B.Kumpawat said though the union leaders have begun the first round of talks with Ministers in Delhi on Friday night, the strike would continue until all the demands were acceded to.

Ahmedabad Telecom General Manager P.K. Chanda said the strike had "marginally" affected services in the district, but there were indications that the strike could be called off.

Republished from Asian Age