31 Monday Dec 2012
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BSNL employees are eligible for a DA increase of 4.2% w.e.f. January 2013 as per the cost of living index.The total IDA will now be 71.5% ( 67.3% plus 4.2%). Orders are yet to be issued.
The IDA has crossed the 50% months back. BSNLEU has demanded merger of 50% IDA with pay. Joint agitation is required in the matter.
31 Monday Dec 2012
Posted in Uncategorized
New Delhi, December 29: The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) expresses its deep sorrow at the tragic death of the brave young woman who had been a victim of brutal gangrape on a moving bus in the heart of the capital. It extends its heartfelt condolences to her family. It calls upon the government to extend all possible help now and in the future to them. It is even more tragic that had the government and the police done its duty the horrific incident could have been avoided.
The PB of the CPI(M) demands the most stringent punishment to the accused criminals.
This is not an isolated incident. Sexual assault cases are the fastest increasing crimes in India. It is essential for the government at the Centre and the states to put into place long pending required measures to prevent violence against women which have been demanded by women’s organizations and Left parties and which the government has failed to accept and implement. Such measures should include steps to ensure security, easy access to time-bound justice, punishment to officials for non-implementation, referring all pending cases to fast track courts and reformed and stringent laws against sexual assault.
31 Monday Dec 2012
Posted in General
While the entire country is shocked and strongly protesting against the brutal rape and asault which resulted in the death of the Delhi Paramedical student, another case of brutal rape and hanging of a 14 year girl has been reported from A.P. Thousands of protesters are blocking the roads nearby and there is an explosive situation. As in the case of Delhi rape case, the A.P.State government is also trying to choke the voice of the people by not allowinng the media to reach there and report the same. Hence the full reports and visuals are not available in the channels now. But government will fail in its move to silence the people and media. The culprit has been arrested.
31 Monday Dec 2012
Posted in General
The New Year 2013 is here. The year 2012 was full of activities as far as the workers are concerned. It was also a year full of struggles for the rights of the people and the toiling masses. At the end of the year, the brutal attack and rape of the young woman in Delhi has shocked the conscience of the entire country and a movement led by the youngsters and students has rocked the country, putting the ruling classes and the government on the defensive. The insensitive government will be compelled to take at least some measures in the new year on these and other issues. Because of the tragedy, New Year celebrations have been cancelled by many organisations and individuals. Certainly, nobody can celebrate when there is such a tragedy in our minds.Still we welcome the New Year with the hope that the people and the working class will continue their struggles and will move forward for a better society.
My best Wishes to all for the New Year!
31 Monday Dec 2012
Posted in General
The people have been protesting against the Delhi Gang Rape and the brutal attack on the young girl since the last two weeks demanding the government to take immediate action and ensure safety for women. Despite maximum efforts, the girl could not be saved and she passed away on 30th December putting the entire country in grief and sorrow.
The method in which the protesters who were mostly students and young men and women peacefully demonstrating their anguish and anger was dealt with by the Central government and the Delhi police, was to say the least, insensitive and autocratic. The thousands who gathered at India Gate and before the Rashtrapathi Bhawan were lathi-charged, attacked with tear-gas and water cannon and many were arrested and beaten in the police station. Later, India Gate and nearby places were cordoned off, and nobody was allowed to reach there. 10 Metro stations in the city were closed harassing the people who wanted to come to the city. Railway Stations were also closed. Thousands of police, para-military forces and commandos were employed against the peaceful demonstrators.
The central government in a panic modem shifted the victim from the ICU of Safdarjung Hospital to a hospital in Singapore without consulting the family or the hospital doctors who were treating her day and night. Further instead of taking the doctors at the hospital where she was treated the government engaged doctors from a private hospital to accompany the victim patient. And after her death the body was secretly brought bck and created in a hush with out even allowing the neibhours at the creamation ground.
Even after the death, the prohition continued. Protesters are allowed in Jantar Mantar only. Restrictions continues in many ways.
What all these indicate? Whether it is the Central Government, the state government or the police authorities, they are moving away from the democratic to autocratic methods. They want to suffocate the popular protests. They want to suprreess the peaceful movement. Yes, there is a shade of the anti-people and dictactorial ’emergency’ in all these actions.
Let us be aware of this ‘shade of emergency’. The government should not be allowed to trample upon the democratic rights of the peole to protest against the inaction and wrong action of the government. The government should be made to understand that there will be severe reaction to these dictatorial methods from the people.
31 Monday Dec 2012
The Punjab Circle Conference of the BSNL Casual and Contract Workers Union was held at Amritsar on 29th December 2012. This city is famous for its Golden Temple, which is the most holiest Gurudwara of the Sikhs. Jhalianwala Bagh is also here, where in 1919, hundreds of people, who had gathered there for a protest meting were murdered by the British.
This is also the district in which lies the Wagha border with pakistan, where many people throng in the evenings to see the border force on both sides show their military salutes etc.
Amritsar is one of the cities in the north, where the temperature is very low during winter. In fact it was very cold on the day of the conference also.
The Conference was held in a hall near the BSNL office. About 300 comrades participated, who have come from all the ditricts of Punjab. Com. R.L.Moudgil, AGS and Circle President BSNLEU presided. Coms. Balbir Singh, Circle secretary, BSNLEU, H.S.Dhillon, Dist. Secretary, Chandigarh, Sarbajit Singh, District Secretary, Amritsar,Tarsem Singh, District Secretary, Ferozpur, Kamaljit Singh, Vice-President, Baljinder Singh, Darshan Singh, Circle Secretary, BSNLCCWU, Iqbal Singh Dhillon, Bhoglal, S.S.bedi and other leaders addressed the Conference. Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri, President BSNLEU and BSNLCCWF spoke in detail about the issues of the casual and contract workers, the efforts made by the union to settle the issues, the formation of BSNLCCWF, the agitational activities etc. he also briefed the house about the deliberations in the Parliamentary Standing Committee on labour on the issues of the casual and contract worklers in BSNL. Some of the delegates also spoke, explaining the non-implementation of the orders on minimum wage etc. in their districts.
The Conference decided to strengthen the union by bringing maximum workers to its fold.The conference decided to organise the CGM Office March in January 2013 as called by the CEC meeting of BSNLCCWF.
Circle Union office-bearers were unanimously elected with Coms. Darshan Singh Ludhiana as President, Baljinder Singh Patiala as Circle secretary and Surinder Singh (Samana) Patiala as Treasurer.
31 Monday Dec 2012
Posted in General
The people of this great Nation is in mourning. The young girl who was raped and brutalised in the Delhi Bus and battling for life for the last two weeks has died in the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore yesterday and cremated near her house in Delhi. The entire country is mourning for this braveheart who fought against the brutal attack and continued her fight for life till the last.
Thousands of young boys and girls, students, citizens and people from all walks of life are still gathering at the Jantar Mantar and other places in Delhi and keep the candles glow in memory of the young girl, who wanted to live and live a full life.
It is not only in Delhi, but all over the nation, the people are mourning and expressing their protest against the brutal attack. They are demanding quick justice to the victims of sexual assaults that are happening in thousands. It is reported that in every forty minutes a rape is committed in India.
The anger and protest are completely justified. India is a democratic nation, which glorifies the women and even worship them. The epics and literature in each and every language glorify the mother and women. But on the other side the attacks on women, rape, molestation etc. are on the increase day by day. As per certain statistics released there are thousands of rape and molestation cases registered, but not even 30% of them have been finalised or the culprits punished.
The charge-sheeting, trial and the legal proceedings take years and in most of the cases the culprits are let off scot-free due to want of evidence or the witnesses turning hostile due to pressure, threat, bribe etc. There is an unholy alliance between the police and the culprits in many such cases. The police are reluctant even to register FIR. The victims are pressurised to compromise with the culprits.
The legal system has to change and action has to be taken on a fast track. There should be zero tolerance in rape, molestations etc. Safety shuld be ensured for women at all places.
Whether in the work-place,public spaces, transports and in all places, there should be safety for women and girl child. The society has to change its mindset. Treating the women as a sex smybol has to be stopped. Due respect should be given to the women in the movies, adverstisements etc. instead of the present sex-exploitation. There should be sufficient women police and they should be employed more and more in public spaces to ensure safety to women.The governnment has to bring legislation for harsh punishments for sex crimes.
The death of the brave girl can not go in vain. The sacrifice of the young girl should enflame the country to such an extent that such horrible crimes should not happen again.
The students and young people have shown their anguish, protest and determination to fight against such evils in the society. It is a massive movement for a change and all the people have to join this struggle to ensure that there is a change in the mindset of the people, harsh punsihemnt to the culprits, a sensitive police system and fast track justice.
Politicians, legal luminaries, progressive thinkers, administrators, activists, women organisations – everybody in one voice have demanded these. The Central and state governments have to move and decide and implement these reforms immediately.
My Homage to the Brave Heart once again! Let her fight and sacrifice be a bacon light for the the present and future generations for a new world of equal right and equal opportunites for men and women and also for the safety of women.
28 Friday Dec 2012
Posted in BSNLCCWF - Casual and Contract workers
The Annual Conference of the BSNL Casual and Contract Workers Federation (BSNLCCWF), Punjab Circle will be held at Amritsar on 29th December 2012. Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri, President BSNLEU and BSNLCCWF, Com. Balbir Singh, Circle Secretary, BSNLEU and other leaders will attend and address. All arrangements are being made by Com. Sarbjit Singh,District Secretary, BSNLEU Amritsar and his team for the holding of the conference in a good way.
27 Thursday Dec 2012
Posted in General
New Delhi, Dec 27 : Rape trials must end within two months as stipulated under law, the Supreme Court has said directing trial courts to “strictly adhere” to existing norms while asking them to rule out the possibility of “manoeuvring” through undue long adjournments.
A bench of justices Swatanter Kumar and Fakkir Mohammed Ibrahim Kalifulla gave their judgement on December 6, 10 days before the Delhi gangrape which triggered nation-wide outrage with strong demands for fast-tracking of rape cases.
The apex court’s verdict came while dismissing the appeal of a man convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the offences of murder and robbery.
The convict, Akil, along with two others in October 1998 while robbing a woman of her cash and jewellery at gunpoint inside her home at Maujpur here had shot her friend when he had objected to the accused’s attempt to molest her.
“We issue directions in light of the provisions contained in section 231 (evidence for prosecution) read along with section 309 (power to postpone or adjourn proceedings) of CrPC for the trial court to strictly adhere to the procedure prescribed therein in order to ensure speedy trial of cases.
“And also rule out the possibility of any manoeuvring taking place by granting undue long adjournments for mere asking,” the bench said in its 37-page judgement.
Section 309 of the CrPC provides that in every inquiry or trial the proceedings should be held as expeditiously as possible and once the examination of witnesses begins the same shall be continued on a day-to-day basis till all the witnesses are examined.
The apex court also noted that in cases that come under section 376 (rape) and related offences under sections 376 A to D of the IPC, the CrPC stipulates that “the inquiry or trial shall, as far as possible, be completed within a period of two months from the date of commencement of the examination of witnesses.”
(Courtsey: Ganashakti)
27 Thursday Dec 2012
I am reproducing below a report on the proposal of the DOT to initiate VRS in BSNL. Our view points are very clear. We are completely against VRS and the points raised in the report have already been answered by the union several times. The report is given to show that we have to be prepared for sustained struggles in the matter::The news report is given below:
Press Report
Government of India seems to have made up its mind on cutting the number of employees in state-owned BSNL by a third, or 1 lakh, in an effort to turn around the loss-ridden company.
Responding to a question about how BSNL and MTNL can “manage their affairs with such a huge reduction of staff”, the Department of Telecom said they will be able to cope with the situation by adjusting their “business processes” and increased use of information technology.
“Both PSUs will be able to manage with reduced staff by way of greater utilization of Information Technology and re-engineering of business processes in tune with the current business environment,” junior telecom minister Milind Deora said.
The company’s losses have increased by about 30% in the last financial year to Rs 8,851 crore, largely on account of the unsustainably high number of employees. BSNL has a total revenue of about Rs 28,000 crore.
For example, its biggest competitor Bharti Airtel, which has a revenue of about Rs 72,000 crore, has only about 22,000 employees (some of whom may be part of its operations outside India). However, it may be noted that Bharti is not involved heavily in labor-intensive land-line operations and has outsourced the management of IT, towers and radio networks to IBM, Indus towers and telecom equipment makers like Nokia Siemens Networks.
However, even including employees that are possibly employed by these companies for Bharti, the total tally is likely to be only about 50,000-70,000, or about one-fourth to one-fifth of BSNL’s.
Even after the voluntary retirement scheme is implemented, BSNL will still have an unusually large employee base of about 2 lakh. However, as a large section of BSNL’s employees are in the 40-50 age bracket, unlike private companies’, the number of employees are likely to decrease by natural retirement as well.
Asked if BSNL has been continuing to recruit employees despite being overstaffed, Deora said the recruitment was required to meet its operational requirements.
“During the last five years, BSNL has recruited 48 Deputy General Managers (DGMs), 628 Junior Accounts Officers (JAOs), 4171 Junior Telecom Officers (JTOs) and 7213 Telecom Technical Assistant (TTAs). The appointments are not in excess of BSNL’s requirement,” he said.
MTNL hired 235 executives during the last five years.
BSNL is also in the process of ‘repatriating’ hundreds of Indian Telecom Officers (ITOs) back to the DoT.
