ITI employees seek company's revival, early release of salary

Employees of Indian Telephone Industry, the country's first public sector undertaking, today knocked at the doors of the government seeking revival of the company and early release of their unpaid salaries and emoluments.
A delegation of ITI employees met Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh and submitted a memorandum seeking early readdress of their long-pending demands.
The memorandum requested for additional fund allocation for the sick PSU in the forthcoming budget as the employees were not being paid salaries regularly and the emoluments were based on fifth pay commission.
"Singh said that the suggestions made by the ITI officials will be put up before the Union Ministry of Communications and Information Technology," a release quoted him as having told the delegation.

The memorandum also made certain suggestions including the options to liquidate the bank loan taken by the company to overcome the liability.
The employees also urged for immediate revival of ITI Limited so that it can play its expected and effective role in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship programmes like 'Make in India' and 'Digital India'.

ITI has acquired a technology of Software Defined Radio (SDR) and if properly supported, it is capable of offering complete range of indigenous SDR, the memorandum said.
Besides Subhash Chandra Singh, Chairman, prominent office bearers of the ITI joint action front who accompanied the delegation included Sushma Kashyap Dhar, Naresh Kumar and Lokesh Sharma.

The government had in last February approved a soft loan of Rs 200 crore for paying salaries to employees of loss-making ITI Ltd with an aim to mitigate the hardship being faced by the company in paying its employees.
The ITI Ltd had 7,633 employees as on December 1, 2013.
Established in 1948, ITI Ltd was converted into a PSU in 1950, making it the first in the country. The company incurred accumulated losses to the tune of Rs 4,527 crore as on March 31, 2013.