Monthly Archives: February 2012

Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour seeks report from BSNL on the complaints of BSNLCCWF/BSNLEU

21 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in BSNLCCWF - Casual and Contract workers

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A meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour was held on the petition submitted by Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri through Com. P.R.Natarajan, M.P. last year and  Com. Namboodiri  gave evidence before the committee. BSNL management gave false evidences and tried to avoid the questions raised by the Committee. However, they were compelled to give written replies to the Committee. BSNLEU/BSNLCCWF exposed these statements and the wrong information given by BSNL. Coms. Tapas Ghosh, Animesh Mitra and other comrades gave evidence before the Committee when it met at Kolkatta.

Now the Parliamentary Standing Committee has agains asked the CMD BSNL  to reply to the fresh queries. Corporate office has forwarded the same to the CGMs for immediate report. Copies of both are posted in the BSNLEU website . Circle/District Secretaries of both BSNLEU and BSNLCCWF are requested to find out what are the reports being sent to C.O. and if found false, intimate me /GS BSNLEU /GS BSNLCCWF immediately.

Fund Managers for New Pension Scheme – bids called for

21 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in AIBDPA - BSNL DOT Pensioners

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The Pension Fund Regulator and Development Authority (PFRDA), has called for bids from financial institutions as Fund Managers  to manage the funds of the New Pension Scheme (NPS) for the next three years, from April 2012.

A small background – The New Pension Scheme was introduced for the Central and State Government employees w.e.f. January 2004. NPS has been introduced in all states except W.Bengal, Kerala and Tripura which were under the Left at that time. NPS, which is a contributory pension scheme replaces the earlier defined pension scheme, which was more beneficial. In the defined pension scheme, a retiree gets pension from the government, which is half amount of his last salary and will be increased through pension revision whenever there is pay revision for the regular employees. In the NPS, the employee has to contribute 10% of the salary to the Provident Fund, a similar amount will be remitted by the government and at the time of retirement, he/she will get 60% back as PF and the rest 40% will be used to pay pension. As per this scheme, there is not even an assured minimum pension of Rs, 1,000 for an employee. In a similar scheme for the Public/ private  Sector employees, introduced in 1995, Employees Pension Scheme (EPS), most of the employees are getting pension about Rs.300 or so. Very few get pension more than Rs. 1,000. The Central/State Government employees have strongly opposed the NPS and want the earlier defined pension scheme. BSNL employees, who are getting pension as per government rules are also against introduction of NPS to the new recruitees from 01-10-2000.

At present there are three Fund managers for the NPS – LIC Pension Fund, SBI Pension Fund and UTI Retirement Solutions Ltd. They are together handling a pension corpus of thousands of crores. In one month alone the subscription comes to more than Rs. 500 crore.

Air India – Former Civil Aviation Minister arranged bigger aircraft for family

21 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in PSU

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Air India is in financial difficulties, as every body knows. In this blog, I have posted earlier how the Government, Minister and bureaucrats were using the air-line for their own agenda without any legal or financial binding. More skeletons are coming from the cup-board after Praful Patel has been shifted from the Civil Aviation Minister’s post.

The latest is the scam of arranging a bigger air-craft to accommodate his family members in the executive class. The Air-India management was compelled to disclose on an RTI that on April 25th 2010 from Bangalore to Male and on April 28th from Male to Bangalore A 319 Aircrafts were  changed for  the bigger A 320 Aircrafts to have more executive class seats to accommodate the family of the Minister. This resulted in vacant seats both in executive and economy class, causing big loss to the Air-India.

The Minister was using the Air-India as his family property without considering the profit or loss to the company. This is not an isolated instance. There may be many other cases like this. The concerned persons should be taken to tasks.

No need to file tax returns for salaries up to Rs. 5 lakh

21 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in General

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The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), has informed that individuals with a total salary income of Rs. 5 lakh in the financial year 2011-12 need not file tax returns for the assessment year 2012-13. However he will have to obtain a certificate of tax deduction in Form No. 16. This relaxation is continuing since last financial year ( 2010-11).

PM agrees that budget provision for R&D less

21 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in General

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At last the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh also agrees that the budget allocation for Reasearch & Development (R&D) in India is less. He assured the nation, while addressing the Golden Jubilee of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), that the government will double the R&D spending within the next five years. At present, it is less than 1% of the GDP.

The Central Government has miserably failed in improving the R&D in the country. In fact, the government was completely ignoring this sector. Even the existing centres like C-DOT were completely ignored. Funds were not allotted. With other R&D institutes also, the case was similar. It gave a big opportunity to the foreign companies to sell their products at high price and that too without transferring the technology. The government had to pay many times the funds, that could have been used for R&D and profited.

The statement of the Prime Minister can be taken only with a pinch of salt. In the neo-liberal policies being pursued by the government, there is not much scope for the ingenious R&D, which will reduce the exploitation by the MNCs and corporates.  The budget proposals will show whether the Prime minister is sincere to implement his assurance.

Casual and Contract Workers unity – Kolkatta shows the example

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in BSNLCCWF - Casual and Contract workers

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Kolkatta Circle have shown the example for the unity of the Casual and Contract workers. In a meeting held by all the casual and contract workers

unions in Kolkata, a co-ordinating committee has been formed for dealing with the workers’ issues. I am reproducing here a report on the matter :

[18th Feb 2012]
Calcutta Telephones experienced unity among Thika Mazdoors.
The first ever experience in Kolkata Telephones is that the contractual workers  four  registered unions  have unitedly raised their voice in support of the ensuing 28th February strike. On 17th February 2012 in a big gathering  of  three thousand workers  Calcutta Telephones Thika Mazdoor Union, Calcutta Telephones Contractor Mazdoor Sangha, BSNL Nationalist Thika Workers Congress and National Union of Contractor Labour & Security Guard (FNTO)  in the banner of Calcutta Telephones United Forum  of Contract Casual Workers  hold a protest demonstration program  in front of  CGMT office at  Telephone Bhawan.  Com Tapas Banerjee Convenor of  CTUFCCW , Circle Secretary CTTMU, and  Chairman  Com Milav Halder, Circle Secretary , BSNLNTWC, Circle President of CTCMS Com Swapan Das, Deputy General Secretary of NUBSNLW- FNTO, Com Alok Nandi, Circle Secretary BSNLEU Com Saibal Sengupta   addressed the meeting. This  meeting urged upon CTD Management  to make an end of contractual labour system and strongly demanded for Departmentalisation of all  contractual workers working under BSNL, CTD.  CTUFCCW also expressed its concern that for the interest of the people of India  and on the other for the sake of national security survival of BSNL & MTNL is a must. Meeting expressed strong protest against any policy detrimental to the health of BSNL & MTNL. One memorandum in this regard had been handed over to the Chief General Manager.

Congratulations, Comrades!

Who will be the next Chairman, TRAI ?

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Telecom

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Shri J.R.Sharma, present Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will be retiring in May 2012 after a stint of 3 years. Who is going to be the next Chairman. The incumbent to the post will be selected by a high level search-cum-selection committee consisting of Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth, Principal Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office Pulok Chatterjee, Secretary (personnel) P K Mishra, Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar and Advisor to Prime Minister Sam Pitroda . Applications have been invited already for the post of TRAI Chairman. The appointment will be for three years, at the pay scale of Rs 3.75 lakh per month.

Red Salute to Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar, the veteran TU leader !

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Obituary, Tributes

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Today, 20th February 2012, is the 5th death anniversary of Comrade Chittabrata Majumdar, the former All India General Secretary of the CITU and a veteran trade union leader.  Com. Chittabrata born in August 14, 1935 in the district of Dacca in the undivided Bengal, in the young age itself entered the trade union movement and became an important trade union functionary of W.Bengal. He was the state Secretary of the CITU W.Bengal for a long period. He functioned as Minister in the first Left Front Government.

He was elected as the All India General Secretary of CITU in the Chennai Conference in 2004 and re-elected in the Bangalore Conference in 2007. Com. Chittabrata Majumdar was closely connected with the P&T Trade Union movement and helped and guided BSNL Employees Union in its onward march. He was always available for consultation and guidance despite his serious illness and the heavy responsibilities as a Member of Parliament, GS of CITU and Polit Bureau Member of CPI(M). He attended our Gauhati AIC and addressed.

I pay my respectful homage to the memory of this great TU leader. Red Salute to Com. Chittabrata Majumdar!

The Government move for 100% FDI in Telecom Sector?

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in BSNL - Better Service to the Nation

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It seems that the UPA-II Government is moving towards 100% FDI in telecom sector. The auction for 2G spectrum is expected shortly consequent to the cancellation of the illegal 122 licences  by the Supreme Court. Many of the affected companies, including Telenor (Norway based company) are reported to file petition against the SC judgement and have approached the government for the refund of the spectrum charges with interest. The government is under pressure to favour the affected companies. In such a situation, the government is sure to bail out these companies as has been doing earlier.

The present move to allow fully foreign owned companies to bid for the oncoming 2G auction, in reality, will mean 100% FDI in telecom. Although the present FDI cap in telecom is 74%, in practice it is much more than that. It is not that the government is not aware of the violation of the FDI cap, but it is being silently allowed. If the fully foreign-owned companies are allowed to bid in the 2G auction, it will be 100% FDI. This needs to be strongly protested.

Disciplinary Authority has to mention reason for disagreeing with Inquiry Report – Allahabad HC

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in General

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The Allahabad High Court  in a recent case ( Hari Shankar Srivastav Vs Commissioner, Food and Civil Supplies )  has given judgement that if the Disciplinary Authority wants to disagree with the report of the Inquiry Officer exonerating the charge sheeted officer, then the latter should be asked to file his reply as also a fresh show-cause notice before imposing any punishment. In many cases, the Disciplinary Authority usually mentions that he disagrees with the Inquiry report and impose punishment. This judgement delivered on 6th February 2012 is against such types of illegal imposement of punishment.