33 MTNL employees on strike

MUMBAI, February 10: Thirty-three workers of the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited’s Kandivli exchange, who are affiliated to the Shiv Sena’s Sthaniya Lokadhikar Samiti, have begun an indefinite strike to draw the MTNL authorities’ attention to their grievances.

Samiti members said despite the acute lack of space in the commerce department, workers of two other departments — meter reading complaints and assistant commercial officers — had been accommodated in the same place. As per rules, it is mandatory to give every worker at least 60 sq ft area for his official work. But 14 members more than the required number have allegedly been crammed into the same department.

However, top officials occupy a needlessly large amount of space and enjoy all comforts, according to the striking workers. Records of receipts given to the nearly 2.5 lakh MTNL subscribers in the area have been lying disorganised due to space crunch. But the blame for poor record maintenance is cast on us, the workers said.