MORE than 500 casual contract workers held a rally at Eastern Court, Delhi and marched to the Bharat Sanchar Bhawan, head office of the BSNL, under the banner of BSNL Casual and Contract Workers Federation, on October 15, demanding that their long pending issues be settled. The workers have come from all parts of the country with the banners of the union, flags and also wall posters with the demands.

The rally was inaugurated by A K Padmanabhan, president, CITU, who spoke on the demands of the casual-contract workers, the struggles conducted by the CITU and other central trade unions, the discussions held in the Tripartite Labour Conference on the Minimum Wage, the call for the observance of December 5 on the 10 point demands raised by the Central TUs etc. He also briefed about the discussion in the Parliament standing Committee on Labour about the issues of the BSNL casual and contract workers. He expressed the wholehearted support of the CITU to the casual contract workers and their struggle.

The rally was presided by VAN Namboodiri, president, BSNLCCWF and was addressed by Tapas Ghosh, secretary general, BSNLCCWF, P Abhimanyu, general secretary BSNLEU, Animesh Mitra, vice-president BSNLCCWF and others. The rally was converted in to a march to the BSNL Corporate Office. A memorandum on the demands of the workers was presented to the CMD BSNL by the leaders.