Over three lakh telecom employees have gone on strike from Wednesday night to protest against privatisation of Department of Telecom Services (DTS) and Department of Telecom Operations (DTO). "There is no justification to gift this huge infrastructure to the multinational corporations (MNCs) which are only interested in garnering profits out of the country and not in giving service to the people," National Committee Against Telecom Corporatisation said in New Delhi on Thursday. It said the net result of privatisation will be that government monopoly will be replaced by private monopoly in telecom, tariffs will rise and Indian private companies will either merge or get out of the business due to uneven competition and pro-MNC policy of the centre. By opening up of National Long Distance Telephony to the private companies the telecom departments will lose about Rs 11,000 crore per annum affecting its capacity to provide telephones in the rural areas, they said. Bureau Report