Uninor employees to protest at Jantar Mantar

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Employees of telecom service provider Uninor along with their families would gather at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday to tell the government that their future is at stake if Uninor's operations are shut in India.

A smaller group of people will also proceed to the offices of Communications Minister Kapil Sibal and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh thereafter.

Uninor, a joint venture between Norway's Telenor and India-based Unitech, would be asking the government to allow its operations till auctions of the cancelled 2G licences takes place.

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The firm, which stands to lose its licences to operate in India following Supreme Court's order to cancel 122 telecom licences issued in 2008, is likely to be in an even difficult situation with the government having sought an extension of time to conduct the auction.

The Supreme Court had asked the firms affected by the order to shut shops in four months and ordered the government to conduct auction of the cancelled licences in the due time.

However, the government has said that the auction would take at least 400 days which would require firms like Uninor to halt their operations after June 2 till the time an auction takes place.

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"The purpose of this gathering will be to register our presence, bring to the government of India's attention the fact that Uninor's future is our future and that we deserve a chance to continue," an Uninor employee said.

"Our employment is dependent on the continuity of Uninor's operations and so we will be asking the government of India to ensure that we are allowed to keep the operations running till such time that our company is able to participate in the new 2G auctions," he added.

The gathering which will take place for one hour starting 10:30 a.m. will see participation from over 600 Uninor employees and their families from NCR and Uttar Pradesh.

The firm has almost 40 million subscribers and about 17,500 employees across India.