Monthly Archives: April 2012

Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour on Casual/Contract Labour

19 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by in BSNLCCWF - Casual and Contract workers

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A meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour will be held tomorrow to take evidence from the BSNL management on the complaint filed before the Committee by the BSNL Casual and Contract Workers Federation. I had the opportunity to give evidence to the Committee earlier on the basis of the complaint filed by me. I have also explained all the issues in detail before the Committee. Recently in the sitting of the committee at Kolkata, Coms. Animesh Mitra, Vice-President and Tapas Ghosh, Secretary General BSNLCCWF had given evidence. About 25 Members of the Parliament are members of this committee.

Tomorrow, the BSNL management will give reply to the queries raised by the Committee and also give oral evidence. The issues include the regularisation of the left-out casual labour, conversion of CDA wages to IDA wages for the casual labour, implementation of minimum wage to the contract labour, implementation of the social security provisions like EPF, ESI etc as also other connected issues.

Today, I met GM(SR), GM(Admn) and  PGM(SR) and discussed about the various demands of the Casual and Contract workers and demanded early settlement.

TRAI seeks more powers including imposing penalty for violation of licence conditions

19 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by in Telecom

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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has sought for more powers to impose penalty for violations of licence conditions by the telecom operators. According to the TRAI Act 1997, Ensuring of the quality of service is with the TRAI, but the authority to impose penalty for violations is with the DOT. The TRAI is demanding that this power be entrusted to them so that it can be implemented effectively.

The government (DOT) seems to be in favour of this proposal.  There are some more amendments expected.

US isolated in American summit over blockade of Cuba

19 Thursday Apr 2012

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Unprecedented Latin American opposition to U.S. sanctions on Cuba left President Barack Obama isolated at a summit on Sunday and illustrated Washington’s declining influence in a region being aggressively courted by China. Unlike the rock-star status he enjoyed at the 2009 Summit of the Americas after taking office, Obama has had a bruising time at the two-day meeting in Colombia of some 30 heads of state. Sixteen U.S. security personnel were caught in an embarrassing prostitution scandal before Obama arrived, Brazil and others have bashed Obama over U.S. monetary policy and he has been on the defensive over Cuba and calls to legalize drugs. Due to the hostile U.S. and Canadian line on communist-run Cuba, the heads of state failed to produce a final declaration as the summit fizzled out on Sunday afternoon. “There was no declaration because there was no consensus,” said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. He bristled at suggestions the summit had been a failure, however, saying the exchange of different views was a sign of democratic health. For the first time, conservative-led U.S. allies like Mexico and Colombia are throwing their weight behind the traditional demand of leftist governments that Cuba be invited to the next Summit of the Americas. Cuba was kicked out of the Organization of American States (OAS) a few years after Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution and has been kept out of its summits due mainly to U.S. opposition. But Latin American leaders are increasingly militant in opposing both Cuba’s exclusion and the 50-year-old U.S. trade embargo on the Caribbean island. “The isolation, the embargo, the indifference, looking the other way, have been ineffective,” Santos said. “I hope Cuba is at the next summit in three years.” Santos, a major U.S. ally in the region who has relied on Washington for financial and military help to fight guerrillas and drug traffickers, has become vocal about Cuba’s inclusion even though he also advocates for democratic reform by Havana. The leftist ALBA bloc of nations – including Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and some Caribbean nations – said they will not attend future summits without Cuba’s presence. “It’s not a favor anyone would be doing to Cuba. It’s a right they’ve had taken away from them,” Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said from Managua. Although there were widespread hopes for a rapprochement with Cuba under Obama when he took office, Washington has done little beyond ease some travel restrictions. It insists Cuba must first make changes, including the release of political prisoners. Obama told a news conference after the summit he was “puzzled” that nations that had themselves emerged from authoritarian rule would overlook that in Cuba. ” The divisive end to the summit added to strain on the U.S.-dominated system of hemispheric diplomacy that was built around the OAS but is struggling to adapt to changes in the region. “I’m not sure the next summit will even be possible,” said Carlos Gaviria, a Colombian politician and former presidential candidate. Perceived U.S. neglect of Latin America has allowed China to move strongly into the region and become the leading trade partner of Brazil and various other nations. Regional economic powerhouse Brazil has led criticism at the summit of U.S. and other rich nations’ expansionist monetary policy that is sending a flood of funds into developing nations, forcing up local currencies and hurting competitiveness. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff called it a “monetary tsunami” that Latin American nations had the right to defend themselves from.

Human Rights Commission seeks report on ‘Cartoon-Gate’ arrest.

18 Wednesday Apr 2012

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The Human Rights Commission has sought a full investigation & report from the Police Commissioner on the ‘Cartoon-gate’ arrest of the Jadavpur University professor. This step has been taken suo moto, after a detailed discussion at the Human Right Commission on the issue. This is sure to increase the embarrassment of the Trinamul government. Meanwhile, Facebook has not taken cognizance of the CID’s missive to provide information on the sources of the cartoons lampooning the CM & the order to delete all unflattering references to the CM. There have been serious doubts amongst the legal fraternity as to the legitimacy of such an order. The Indian constitution allows freedom of expression & Facebook is governed by a strong principle of protection of privacy. Moreover, the request is person specific & not bipartisan as it is silent on the extremely vulgar representations on the left leaders. The situation of partisanship on the part of the government where its police has been singularly consistent in protecting the aggressors & punishing the victims, worsened with another such incident at Baruipur, on the fringes of the Kolkata city. Prof. Aparesh Bhattacharya & his daughter were beaten up in broad daylight at his home by Trinamul goons. The police refused to act on his complaint. Having returned from the US after a long career there, he recently retired as a senior principal scientist at Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB). His attempt to seek justice from the CM’s secretariat was rebuffed thrice.

Kerala declared as Full Literate State in 1991. What about all India?

18 Wednesday Apr 2012

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Kerala State was declared as Full Literate State on 18th April 1991, that is full 21 years back. It was not easy to attain this coveted position, though the state was much advanced in education position even earlier. The position could be achieved only after much hard work, campaign and also with the full support of the people, the government, all political parties and others. The government gave free books, the educated persons including teachers, employees, students etc. gave coaching throughout the year in the evening – night-time to the required uneducated persons near their homes – wide propaganda was also given.  It was a challenge and the people of Kerala faced it and achieved the unbelievable.

What is the situation in other states? Recently, Com. Manik Sarkar, Chief Minister of Tripura stated at the open session of the 20th Party Congress of CPI(M) at Calicut that the state has improved its literacy much and it is expected to become full literate state within a few years. There are some other states also moving in this direction.

But unfortunately, this is not the case with many states. Literacy is around 50% only. There are not sufficient schools or teachers. Sufficient funds are not made available. In some places, classes are held under the shades of trees due to lack of accommodation. Though there are acts and orders against child-labour, children of the school age are made to work and deprived of education, which is their constitutional right. The political parties also have not taken a serious view of the situation. The central government has reduced the % of amount granted for primary education.

It is a shame that India continues to be less illiterate than many countries in the African continent, which was called the Dark Continent.  All of us has the responsibility and duty to improve our literacy rate in the country and give the power to read and write to all the people.

ITS absorption – Delhi High Court judgement

18 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by in BSNL - Better Service to the Nation

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Delhi High Court has given judgement on 17-04-2012 in the petitions filed by certain ITS officers. The main points in the judgement are reproduced below:

i) The deemed date of absorption of the petitioners fixed as 1.10.2000, is held to be illegal, being contrary to Rule 37-A (4) of CCS (Pension) Rules;

ii) The deemed date of permanent absorption of such of the petitioners who seek permanent absorption in BSNL/MTNL shall be 8.12.2005;

iii) The petitioners before this Court are given an option, to be exercised within two weeks from the date of this order, to revert to the Government or to seek permanent absorption in BSNL/MTNL as the case may be;

iv) Those Government servants who have already accepted permanent absorption w.e.f. 1.10.2000 will not be entitled to exercise a fresh option in terms of this order;

v) BSNL/MTNL shall relieve such of the petitioners, who opt to revert to Government service within 2 weeks of receipt of options from them;

vi) Such of the petitioners who opt to revert to the Government shall be appropriately redeployed by the Government in Government service through surplus cell of the Government. We have no doubt in our mind that the Government would not like to keep such of the petitioners who opt to revert to the Government idle and, subject to availability of the positions with it, give them such work as is deemed appropriate to be performed by them.

Where BSNL stands and what is our task?

18 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by in BSNL - Better Service to the Nation

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I have posted a few days back in this blog the TRAI statistics for February 2012 on the subscribers base and market share of each telecom company. According to that, BSNL has 226. 51 lakh landline connections, 977.51 lakh mobile connections and a total of  1204. 02 connections with market share of  70.07 %, 10.73% and 12.76% respectively.  BSNL is first in landline connections, 5th in mobiles and fourth in total connections.

DOT and MTNL were the only establishments  providing telephone connections till 1995. As per the neo-liberal policy pursued since 1991 by the Central Government, private companies were granted licences to provide mobile connections in 1995. But at the same time DOT and MTNL were discriminated and were denied permission to provide mobile services, though they could have easily done it. This was the starting of the many discriminations against DOT/MTNL and later BSNL. During the last 17 years since the private companies were allowed to provide telephone services, one after another, policy decisions were taken in support of the private companies, concessions and relaxations were granted and the public sector companies, BSNL and MTNL were denied of equal field. There was no difference between UPA and NDA governments in this matter. Though the slogan ‘Business is not the business of the government’ was coined by the NDA government, the UPA government implemented the same more aggressively. This was the starting point of the mega corruptions one after another in telecom sector, including the 2G scam. The beneficiaries were the private companies, including MNCs. The hands of BSNL/MTNL were tied denying procurement of equipment, bringing new technology, taking away all the cash on one pretext or other and what not. This is the major reason why BSNL has come down to the present position. The top management headed by the ITS also have a great share in the present debacle.

BSNL Employees Union has from the first pointed out the need for continued efforts to improve the services and also fought with the government/management for getting procurement of equipments etc. for the company. Though very slowly, there has been improvement in the services after the JAC started ‘Customer Delight Year’ programme, but more is to be done to save the BSNL.

BSNL Employees Union has ensured a better wage revision, promotion  policy and similar benefit to the workers. But unless the BSNL improves, all these gains may go to the drain. It is the duty of the workers at to ensure that the services are improved and the management and government is compelled to change the anti-PSU and anti-BSNL decisions. It is a serious and protracted struggle. We have to win and save and improve BSNL. Each and every worker should be part of this great struggle. The people of the country has got a right for better service from BSNL .Let us jointly shoulder this great responsibility and march ahead.

 

Now, radiation norms for towers

18 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by in Telecom

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The DOT has directed all the mobile companies to ensure that the radiation emitted from the towers is as per the new guidelines framed. As per the new guidelines the radiation level should be reduced by 1/10th of the present level. This is based on the report of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). As per this, the radiation level should adhere to Specific Absorption Rates (SAR)  of a cell phone to 2 watts per kilogram averaged over 10 grams tissue.

Already there has been agitation by local people against constructing towers in their area due to fear of radiation. Some of the private companies have been violating all norms so that the tower can have a wider range. At least, now there will be some restraint in this matter.

Vodafone issue notice to Goverment on retrospective tax proposal

18 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by in Telecom

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Usually it is the government which gives notice to the companies for remittance of tax. It also peoposes and pass acts on tax and other issues. Accordingly, the Government has moved an amendment to the Finance Bill which will allow it to tax the foreign companies on their assets in India with retrospective effect.As per this amendment Vodafone will have to pay retrospective tax from 2007 till now, which will come to around Rs. 11,297 crore.

But now, the Vodafone company has issued notice to the government that unless this amendment is not dropped, it will go for arbitration under the International Bilateral Investment Treaty against the Government of India.

India government should not be cowered by this threat. It should move as decided earlier. It should not be MNCs which decide the policy of the government. But unfortunately, the track-record of the government of India shows its continued submission to pressure of foreign governments and MNCs.

At last after 5 years, APO for 15 million GSM lines issued

17 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by in BSNL News

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It is understood that at last the BSNL will get some mobile lines. Now the BSNL management has issued Advance Purchase Order (APO) for 15 million GSM lines after the tender was finalised. After cancellation of the 45 million tender in 2007, 93 million tender in 2010 and 5.5 million later, the equipment crunch in BSNL became acute and the market share went down like anything. The continued pressure of the JAC  had resulted in purchase of telephone instruments, cables, drop wire etc. but both the GSM lines and Broadband modem were still not available. Now the issue of APO for 15 million mobile lines is certainly going to make a change. Let us hope the field level management will issue purchase orders immediately and utilise the opportunity to increase the connections and improve the services. Workers will fully co-operate.