New Delhi, Aug 27 (IANS): The BSNL Employees Union has called upon all employees of the state-run telco to protest on Friday against the Centre's asset monetisation plan.

In a statement, the employees union alleged that in the name of "National Monetisation Pipeline" (NMP), the government has decided to hand over the national assets at throw away price to the corporates.

"The argument of the government that, the ownership of these assets will continue to remain with the government itself, is nothing but a 'sugar-coated poison'," it said.

"To express its opposition to Monetisation, BSNLEU calls upon the entire BSNL employees to organise protest Lunch Hour Demonstrations throughout the country tomorrow, 27.08.2021."

As per the union, it is disturbing that the government has decided to hand over 2.86 lakh kilometre of Bharatnet Optic Fibre, as well as 14,917 mobile towers of BSNL and MTNL.

"Accordingly, the entire high speed internet backbone of the country, constructed with the people's money, is going to be handed over to the corporates. Similarly, the handing over of the 14,917 mobile towers to the corporates, is nothing but the beginning of privatisation of BSNL and MTNL. The handing over of the mobile towers to the corporates will deliver a body blow to BSNL and MTNL," said the statement.

Amid the criticism of the National Monetisation Pipeline, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday had said that under the plan nothing will be sold off and there will mandatory handing back of the assets to the government.

The NMP targets to raise Rs 6 lakh crore through asset monetisation of Central government, over a four-year period, from FY22 to FY25.

As per the government only under-utilised brownfield assets will be monetised.