Employees of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited staged sit-ins and resorted to pen down strike in Amravati demanding inclusion of Group 'A' level officers, presently on deputation, into its fold.

The protest was held in front of the BSNL office on Monday in response to a nationwide agitation call given by the Sanchar and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam [Get Quote] Limited Associations.

BSNL was formed on Oct 1, 2000 and it had decided to included all the Central level Government Officers and employees, who were working on DOT basis, in BSNL fold and accordingly, group 'B' and group 'C' employees and group 'D' officers were included in BSNL.

But still, the officers of group 'A', currently working as GM and DGM, have not been included in BSNL and they have been working on deputation as central level administrative officers.

The agitators have also decided to submit a memorandum regarding their demands to the telecom ministry on December 22 and threatened to stage an indefinite pen down agitation from December 23, if their demands are not.