Wednesday, March 23 2005 18:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: BSNL executives today (Mar 23, 2005) called off their nine-day old agitation over the promotion policy after the Government assured them of examining their demands.

"This morning, we had a meeting with the United Forum of BSNL executives along with MP Nilotpal Basu. An agreement has been reached and the employees union has decided to call off the strike and normalcy will be restored. With this we can go the next step forward that all the other issues can be handled by the BSNL management," Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran told reporters in New Delhi.

"Their issues would be heard by the BSNL management and there are certain grievances which will be discussed. But DoT will not go further into that and we will be behind them to see that everything goes smoothly," he said.

Speaking to the media later, A K Sinha, CMD, BSNL, said the management has assured the executives it will look into their demand in light of the promotional avenues on offer at the time of absorption and appealed to them to immediately call off the agitation.

He said the management has decided to form a committee of senior officers of BSNL to look into their demand and submit a report.

The executives who were on work-to-rule agitation since March 15, were demanding time-bound promotion under which executives in BSNL will be allowed upgradation to the next higher pay scale on a 4-6 year time period and post-based promotions as well.