"We decided to work to rule from tomorrow after Chaudhary refused to tender a written apology for his remark that JTOs were not working at all during the 45-minute long meeting we had with him today," Junior Telecom Officers' Association, India (JTOA-I) secretray A A Khan told Express Newsline.

Chaudhary, however, retorted, "Why should I apologise for something which I have not said?" He said he had called another meeting with JTOs on Tuesday.

Khan said Chaudhary made such a remark during a meeting with the JTOA-I leaders on Friday, which had been called by him (Chaudhary) to discuss the JTOA-I's long-pending demands. "Now the issue of our demands has become secondary and we will not withdraw our call about work to rule until Chaudhary tenders written apology", Khan asserted.

All outdoor telephone repair work in the Ahmedabad Telecom District (ATD) came to a halt following the day-long dharna around 200 JTOs organised outside the office of PGM to press for their long pending demands on Monday.

The areas in the ATD where the outdoor telephone repair work remained hampered throughout the day include the Ahmedabad city besides Sanand, Bawla, Dhandhuka, Dholka, Gandhinagar, Dehgam, Bareja and Bopal.

The day-long dharna, which began at around 9 am continued well past 4.30 pm. There was a momentary lull in the slogan-shouting around 3.30 pm when the Ahmedabad Telecom District PGM S C Chaudhary, called the leaders of JTOs for a meeting. The JTOs, however, again started slogan shouting soon after their leaders came out of the ATD's conference room in a huff. "What led to the boycott of the meeting was the PGM's refusal to tender written apology about his remarks about JTOs," Khan said.

The demands of the JTOA-I include appointments of more JTOs so as to decrease their workload, timely promotions, sufficient honorarium and supply of raincoats, gum boots and woolen clothes which JTOs require while conducting their duties at the 20-degree temperature at the switch rooms of telephone exchanges.

Khan said that JTOs were working under heavy workload. "A minuscule staff of 200 JTOs is doing the supervisory work of looking after over 3,80,000 telephone connections," Khan said.

He said the JTOs were getting Rs 200 as monthly honorarium which was far less than the honorarium of Rs 1,000 their counterparts in Delhi and Mumbai are getting. Chaudhary countered Khan's allegations saying JTOs in Delhi and Mumbai were getting more honorarium because they were working under the MTNL. He attributed the problem of workload to the ban on recruitment.