The Jantar Mantar area in New Delhi was full to the brim by about 1000 AM today, 25th November by the delegates who have come from all parts of the country to participate in the Parliament March against PFRDA. Red Banners and flags of Federations/Associations/Unions were fixed at all available places. More and more contingents of workers were arriving now and then shouting slogans and with their banners held high.
A very big stage was constructed for conduct of the rally. Leaders of all participant organisations had already come. By about 1030, the rally started. Comrade S.K.Vyas, Convener of the Steering Committee welcomed all for the massive participation. A Presidium consisting of leaders of all the participating units conducted the rally. From BSNLEU, VAN Namboodiri was in the Presidium. Leaders of AIRF, AISGEF, AIDEF, Confederation of CG Employees and Workers, NFPE, BCPC, BSNLEU, Teachers etc. addressed the rally expressing strong opposition to the PFRDA Bill. Coms. K.K.N.Kutty (Confederation) Sukomal Sen, Rajendran (AISGEF), V.A.N.Namboodiri, P.Abhimanyu (BSNLEU), M.Krishnan (NFPE), Shiva Gopal Mishra (AIRF), M.S.Raja( Audit & Accounts Assn) and other leaders addressed.
A delegation consisting of Coms. S.K.Vyas, Shiv Gopal Mishra, K.K.N.Kutty, P.Abhimanyu and other leaders went to Parliament, met the Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh and presented the memorandum signed by the leaders and expressed their opposition to the PFRDA Bill.
Coms. Basudevacharia, Tapan sen, both Members of Parliament addressed the rally and briefed the audience about the meeting with the Prime minister. They also assured all help to the justified struggle of the workers.
More than 50,000 workers participated in the rally from almost all states and all sections of government employees, both central and states. At the end of the inspiring rally the leaders of the Steering Committee announced that further programmes will be discussed and decided in the Steering Committee on 20th December 2011.

The Government should take note of the strong protest of the employees and drop the PFRDA Bill. Otherwise there will be strong struggles by the workers. That is the message given by the Parliament March on 25th November.

The Steering Committee meeting of the Anti-PFRDA committee met today and has planned to organise the Parliament March on 25th November in a very effective way. The workers have to reach near Jantar Mantar by sharp 10.00 AM. The rally will start by 1030 hours. A delegation will meet the Prime Minister for giving the memorandum.

All are requested to be present in time.

From morning today, 24th November, delegates from all parts of the country has started reaching Delhi for the Parliament March, for tomorrow against the PFRDA Bill presented in the Parliament. Many delegates could not reach so far since almost all the trains are delayed hours togehter due to the heavy fog.
However, we had some senior leaders already reached Delhi despite their old age and related difficulties. Coma. Pabitra Chakraborty, former General Secretary of the All India Telecom Administrative Office Employees Union, M.N.Reddy, former Asst. General Secretary of the AITE Union Class III, Nikhil Chakraborty, another AGS of AITE Union Class III, T.S.Rajan, former Deputy General Secretary of Telegraph Traffic Union are all among the delegates. They all have come to attend the Parliament March tomorrow. Another very senior leader who will be reaching by the evening is Com. Ananta Kumar Bhattacharjee, the All India President of the All India BSNL-DOT Pensioners Association, who has been the Circle secretary of E-III Union Calcutta Telephones for about three decades.
The Pensioners have come in large numbers to attend the March. It is not only for them alone, but for the future pensioners also. They are determined to see that the pension of the future generation is also ensured.
My thanks and greetings to them. I wsh that all of them will be in the struggle path for many more years to come.

The adamant attitude of th ruling UPA government has resulted in stalling of the Paliament for the third day. Since the Parliament startd the winter session on 22nd December, the house stands stalled due to the adamant position taken by the government. The opposition parties have demanded a discussion on the continuing price rise for the last more than six months resulting in untold misery to the common people. Prime Minister and Dy. Chairman Planning Commission have been telling every time that the prices will come down next month, next month etc. But nothing happened except that the price is continuously rising. No action is taken by the government to put a stop to it. Instead by increasing the petrol price, the price of essential commodities have further increased.
The opposition parties, including the Left, are only asking for a debate on the issue. Why can’t the government agree? There is no reason except that the government can not defend itself.
The Government should be made to understand the anger of the workers, not only in Parliament, but outside also.

AS already wrote earlier, NFTE has given strike notice for participating in the one day strike on 15th December 2011. JAC has approached FNTO also to participate in the strike. We hope that FNTO will take a favourable decision.
In the meanwhile as decided by JAC, I have already met some members of Parliament and also trade union leaders seeking support for the strike. Within the last few days, I have met Comrades A.K.Padmanabhan, President and Tapan Sen, General secretary of CITU. Com.Basudev Acharya, M.P. and CPI(M) leader in Parliament has assured that he will raise in the Parliament in this session. I met Dr. Sajeeva Reddy, M.P. and President INTUC who also gave support. Within the next feww days more M.P.s and TUs will be contacted.
Prepare fully for the strike.

After many years, again I got a chance to visit Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world. Yesterday, 22nd November, along with 37 comrades who have come from Calicut (Kerala) to participate in the 25th November Parliament March against PFRDA Bill, I went to Agra by starting at early morning. There was heavy fog due to which there was some in delay in reaching Agra.
Before that we visited Sikandra, where Mogul Emperor Akbar built his own tomb and is laid to rest. It was constructed in the 1600s (1602-1605).His two daughters are also buried there. With its grand gate, the magnificent tomb and the garden around is about 123 acres. What is the difficulty for the king to select the best hundreds of acres for his burial. Akbar’s tomb is said to be one of the inspiration to construct Taj almost in the same model.
We next visited the Agra Fort, which was the headquarters of the Moghul Dynasty from Emperors Akbar to Aurangazeb, 4 generations till the capital was shifted to Delhi. It is a mighty fortified fort and includes the residences of Emperor, family, ministers and the army etc. The lavish way in which the Moghul kings lived can be understood when going through the fort.
Lastly we visited the ‘most beautiful poem in marble’,Taj Mahal. It is the eternal memento of love Shajahan created for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. It took about 20,000 workers to build the same by 22 years. We took about 1-2 hours to see the Taj and enjoy its beauty. We could visit only the duplicate coffin of the Emperor and his wife since people are not allowed to visit the real coffin which is in the underground room. I had visited it when I came earlier. All comrades who visited it for the first time were enthralled though they had seen the photos earlier.
The security, whether in Agra Fort or Taj has become stricter and many places where we could visit earlier could not be reached now. And the number of visitors are at least ten times more. On earlier visits I could walk through leisurely and see all the places, but now, everywhere there are queues and it takes a lot of time to move and see. Population has increased and the urge for our and travel has also increased.
Everybody is happy and enjoy seeing Taj, but how many people think about the efforts and work put in the construction of this great monument. Thousands of skilled and expert workers have put in their labour. The Marbles and Red Stones were brought from far away. How difficult it might have been for the workers to bring it. Probably it was sheer exploitation of the workers, slaves and the poor people. But there is not much difference now also. The worker is always exploited by the powers be at that time.
Again we had to face the heavy fog when we returned. Anyway it a pleasure to visit the Taj once again.

It was 47 years back on 24th November 1954 that the united organisation of National Federation of Posts and Telegraphs Employees (NFPTE) was born. All the existing unions/association in the Posts and Telegraphs including Union of P&T Workers (UPTW) merged for bringing the new organisation. It was as per an agreement with the Government that this unification was brought. The then Communications Minster, Shri Jagjivan Ram, took a pivotal role in this realignment scheme.
NFPTE was one of the foremost union not only in Central Services, but in the entire government employees for having taken a correct trade union line, thus building a mighty union. Under the able leadership of Comrade Bhupendra Nath Ghosh (B.N.Ghosh), the first Secretary General, NFPTE became the leadeing light of government employees.
NFPTE was bifurcated in to NFPE and NFTE after the Department of Posts & Telegraphs was divided in to Department of Posts and Department of Telecommunications, in 1985.
The leadership of NFTE took revisionist line and was defeated in 1991 at Bhopal All India Conference of E.III Union to the progressive leadership headed by Comrades Moni Bose and V.A.N.Namboodiri.
When BSNL was formed, BSNL Employees Union was formed by the progressive leadeship and J.N.Mishra became the President and V.A.N.Namboodiri the General Secretary. BSNLEU fought many struggles and ensured two very good wage revisions and Promotion Policy for the non-executives. The government’s proposal for disinvestment and VRS were defeated till now.
In the four consecutive membership verifications, BSNLEU became first and is the recognised and representative union in BSNL.
BSNLEU will make all efforts to advance the interests of the workers and also will be part of the mainstream of the workers.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning commission is a tough man. He always try to be stubborn and strongly pleads for what he says. See for example, he stood by the Rs.26 / Rs.32 as the above poverty line point, though the entire country ridiculed it and even one person sent Rs.32 to Prime minister and Montek to show how they live on Rs.32.
But now the great economist could not continue with his position on inflation. He was always stating that within a few months the prices will be normal. But there is a limit to how long period the same statement can be made. Now he has stated that the continuing inflation has hurt the credibility of the government. Certainly the credibility of the government is in question. But why the great Montek could not relise it earlier. Of course better late than never.
Mr Montek, What are you going to do to stop inflation? What are you going improve the credibility of the Government?

As agreed upon with the JAC, NFTE has issued notice for strike on 15 December along with its allies. It is a good news! The strike will get further strength by this decision of the NFTE.
I hope that the Central Working Committee of the FNTO on 1st December 2011 will also take a favourable decision to partiipate in the strike. This is very much eesential to make the strike a big success and complete.

The fog had its days, yesterday and today. Flights were delayed and cancelled. Trains were delayed for hours. There were many road accidents in Delhi due to low visibility. In some places you could not see even 50 metres ahead. It was all hazy and the whitish fog.
I had my own personal experience today. Many Comrades from Kerala were coming to attend the 25th November Parliament March in Delhi. Some were coming by Kerala Express and some by the Mangla Express. Mangala was to reach Nizamuddin at 1310 hours and Kerala Express by 13.18 hours. Since I got the information that the trains were half an hour late, I reached there only after 1330. But the delay increased after every half an hour and the trains reached only after 1700 hours. Almost 04 hours late. Almost all the trains were very late. A large number of people were in the platform either waiting for a train to arrive or to depart.
The railway officials told the villian is the fog due to which there was low visibility and the trains can only move very slowly.
Lunch was arranged for the comrades at Delhi. They could take their lunch(?) only after 1800 reaching the hotel and washing up.
The fog is a real villain, spoilsport!