In an interview with the Economic Times reporter, Shri R.Chandrasekhar , Secretary DOT has stated that the National Telecom Policy -2011 (NTP – 2011) will be finalised by early next year.
But it is not important when the policy will be finalised. The moot point is, what are the contents? Going through the draft of the NTP-2011, it is very clear that this policy is intended to favour the private telcos and MNCs to capture the market and get maximum profits. It is intended to legalise all the illegal actions and acts which the government has done to favour the private companies. It is intended to push down the PSUs, BSNL and MTNL to the bottom and gradually privatise the same handing over the vluable land assets and huge infrastructure throughout the country to the greedy private operators.
That is why the BSNLEU and the JAC has given a critique of the draft NTP-2011 and also the draft of an Alternate Telecom Policy (ATP) which will benefit the country and the people which will strengthen the PSUs, BSNL and MTNL.
Massive campaign is necessary in this matter to make the workers and people understand the real position and defeat the nefarious plan of the Government.

You might have read about the huge Non-Performing Assests (NPA)of the Public Sector Banks. NPA is the polished name for the unreturned loans to the banks. 95% of these NPAs are loans to be returned by the big corporates and businesses. Thousands of crores are to be paid by these sharks to the banks. The government is shy of taking any action since these big guns are their blue eyed boys.The Government and the Reserve Bank of India have all the details of these defaultees, but will not divulge it.
Now the Central Information Commission has asked the Reserve Bank of India to make public the names and other details of the top 100 industrialists who have defaulted repayment and cheated the Public Sector Banks. The RBI has earlier objected to the publication of the names on the plea that ‘ it would adversely affect economic interests of the state’. Wonderful!
It is utmost necessary to publish the list, not only of the top 100 defaulters, but that of all defaulters having at least unpaid loan of more than one crore.

Despite the strong opposition from the employees of Central /State Governments, teachers, Railways, Defence, Postal and BSNL numbering more than one and half crore, the Central Government is hell bound to pass the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Bill in the winter session of the Parliament starting from 22nd November 2011. The Bill was introduced in Parliament on 24th March 2011. It has been referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Finance headed by BJP leader Yashwant Singh. The Committee had suggested that there should be a cap of FDI and also that there should be provisions for easy withdrawal from the fund by the concerned employee.
The Cabinet did not agree for a cap in FDI, but has stated that it will be at 26% at present. It gives the power to the government to increase at any time. If a cap was put in the Bill, then it would have been difficult to increase the same without the consent of Parliament as is now the case with Insurance sector. It clearly means that the government wants to increase FDI at the next opportunity by an administrative order.
In the same way, denying withdrawal is also to make available the full funds to the Fund Managers to do whatever they like with the funds uninterrupted.
The Standing Committee has suggested that there should be assured returns to the employees, which also has been rejected by the Cabinet.
It has now become very clear that while pious declarations are made for the benefit of the employees, the Government is implementing its neo-liberal agenda of allowing the huge pension corpus amounting to lakhs of crores of rupees in the hands of Fund Managers and private companies for their benefit. The hard earned money of the employees will be at serious risk.
Once the Parliament enacts the bill, the pension of not only those recruited after 01-01-2004 in the Government services and after 01-10-2000 in BSNL will be adversely affected, even those who are recruited earlier are also in peril.
That is why the entire Central/State government, Railways, Defence, Postal, Teachers and BSNL employees are fighting against this anti-worker bill. At the present juncture it is most important that the Parliament March proposed on 25th November against the PFRDA Bill should made a thumbing success with massive participation. On that day a memorandum signed by lakhs of workers and pensioners will be presented to the President and Prime Minister of India.
There cannot be any compromise to the government’s move to defraud the employees of their hard earned pension.

The Prime Minister joined the chorus in reiterating that corporations in crisis, like Kingfisher should be helped by the govt. It’s an irony in a country where a huge majority lives below the poverty line, farmers commit suicide & foodgrains rot while inflation runs riot. The PM heads a govt. dedicated to privatise the entire economy & work towards ‘zero’ govt. spending. While, Kingfisher Air, run by the flamboyant & irresponsible Vijay Mallaya, has been driven to near bankruptcy, the Congress led UPA govt. has, with unusual alacrity rose as its white knight. Mallaya, who represents the worst case of conflicting interests in being a parliamentarian & using it to further the fortunes of his business interest, had rushed to the Aviation minister, Valayar Ravi, who was quick to provide him succor & said that the FM would speak to the banks & ask them to bail out Kingfisher.
The banks nudged into saving Kingfisher have come together & decided to take complete control & ring-fence the cashflows. They will put a mechanism where all the earnings will flow into a single account, which will be closely tracked to avert defaults.
While data around the world over the 2 decades have shown that the aviation industry can only survive as a low cost & highly efficient run business, Mallaya chose to go against it, his profligacy subsidized by the ministry in providing profitable routes, PSU banks rolling over his loans, inspite of increasing risk, till it hit rock bottom. Now, this cry for the govt. to bail it out, when the private sector has been all for ‘zero’ govt in business, smacks of the inherent duplicity. In fact, the airline should be investigated for financial irregularities, non-payment of dues to the oil companies, inspite of getting its revenue in full & in advance from its customers. ( Courtsey – Ganasakthi )

The deferred one day strike called by the Joint Action Committee will now be organised on 15th December 2011. All the JAC constituents were unanimous that the strike should be organised in a very effective manner since the issues raised are of utmost importance to the future of BSNL and its workers. It has also been decided that in preparation of the strike massive rallies will be organised on 8th December 2011 at all SSA/Circle and Corporate office levels. I am expecting that NFTE and FNTO who are keeping away from the JAC for their own reasons may also join the one day strike. I,as Convener of the JAC, have already approached them for joining the strike.
Like the one day strike in 2007, this one day strike also should be made complete so that the issues are settled.
Onwards to struggle!

The Bank workers organisations have threatened to go on strike if the Banks proceed with their proposal to bail out the cash crunched Kingfisher air lines. The Banks are reported to have purchased the KF shares for 260% of its market price to help the private airline.
When there is some difficulty for the PSUs everybody from government onwards accuse and are not prepared to help. But when it is a private company, from the Prime Minister onwards, all the powers that be are in a haste to help and bail-out. This hypocrisy has got to be exposed and defeated.

The agitating workers of the Insurance and Banking sector have scored a well earned point. The Insurance and Banking Bills will not be presented in the ensuing Winter Session of the Parliament starting from 22 November 2011. These bills are being brought in order to further open these sectors to the corporates as also to weaken the PSUs in these sectors as part of the neo-liberalisation policy of the UPA government. The bills were presented in the Parliament in the earlier session and have been referred to the Committee and the recommendations could not be finalised as there were strong different opinions in the Committee.
The present delay will give more time for the Insurance Banking Workers to further plan their strong struggles.

It has been well established that the Airtel,Vodafone and Idea Cellular etc. have clearly violated the rules of 3 G Spectrum licence conditions by providing 3G services, where they have got no licence. By not bidding and paying for 3G spectrum in many of the circles, they are providing services through illegal sharing arrangements. Then what was the need to have circle wise auction? Why government compelled BSNL to pay for all the circles except Delhi and Mumbai (where MTNL was compelled to pay), exhausting all its reserves?
The DOT is dithering most probably of political pressure to bail out the private companies from the present crisis. It is well known that the private companies are the blue-eyed boys of the Manmohan Singh Government. But here it is clear violation of rules and no compromise should be there. Their licences for G spectrum should be cancelled, money to be forfeited and penalty to be imposed on them. Nothing less. The DOT has to act firmly.

All India Democratic Womens Association (AIDWA) can be proud that it has now its own building for functioning of its Central Head Quarters at New Delhi. The office near Shadipur Metro was inaugurated today, 15th November 2011, by Comrade Brinda Karat, PB Member CPI(M) and founder General Secretary of AIDWA. An array of senior leaders of various Women’s Organisations were present.
While welcoming, Com. Sudha Sundararaman, General Secretary, AIDWA, informed that the money for purchasing the building was collected @ Rupee one each from its members and public. A very great effort and achievement indeed! Comrade Pramila Pandhe, despite her double loss of husband and son within the period of one month, was there to see the cherished dream of having a building for AIDWA, for which she has been working for the last many years.
I was glad that I could attend the meeting. Shortly, most probably on 11th December 2011, the own building of BSNLEU may also be inaugurated at Shadipur itself.

Is Uttar Pradesh (UP), the most populous state in the country, going to be divided in to 4 separate states? It is the proposal of the Mayavati Government to split UP in to Purvanchal (UP East), Paschim Pradesh (UP West), Bundelkhand (UP South) and Awadh Pradesh (UP Central) according to press reports.
Opposition parties have already opposed the reported proposal. Certainly a serious discussion is going to take place in the coming days regarding this reorganisation proposal. It may enthuse certain other states also to have similar proposal. Already the agitation is continuing for a Telengana State bifurcating A.P.