Kolkata, Aug 19 - Around 270,000 employees of state-run telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) went on strike for two days starting Wednesday, demanding a bigger hike in wages than had been offered.

'Around 20,000 BSNL engineers and 250,000 group C and D employees have gone on a strike for two days (Aug 19, 20),' senior member of BSNL Employees Union Dilip Das told IANS.

Altogether nine BSNL unions have gone on strike among which BSNL Employees Union is the largest one. All the nine unions are striking together under a conglomerate body -- The United Forum of BSNL Unions.

Apart from a higher wage hike than the management had offered, the other demands are regularisation of casual contract labourers and implementation of promotion policy.

'This large scale strike would definitely affect services to the customers,' said Bipin Guha, a BSNL customer in the city.

Soumya Roy, chief general manager, West Bengal Circle of BSNL, told IANS: 'This strike will affect services to some extent. But we are addressing major equipment faults in the state immediately.'