The Joint Circle Conference of Assam, NE- I and NE – II was held at Agartala, capital of Tripura on 7, 8 & 9 September 2014. The Joint Circle Conference is a tradition of the Seven Sister States of North East viz. Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur  and Meghalaya. Earlier both Postal and Telecom Unions were holding the conference together. There will be 5 unions each from the three circles, Assam, NE I and NE II from Postal as well as Telecom Circles thus totalling more than 20 Circle Unions. After formation of BSNL also it continued for a few years. Now the BSNL circle unions hold together and Postal Unions in the same way.
The Conference of BSNLEU was a great success. These three circle unions were fully with BSNLEU from the start and had given massive majority, sometime to the extend of more than 95% in the membership verifications.
I could not attend the Conference as I had to go to Kerala as a close relative of mine passed away, though I had pleasantly agreed earlier.
My Hearty Congratulations to the leaders and workers of the three circles.

It seems that BSNL management has got some bad advisors, who are bent upon disturbing the cordial relationships between the unions/associations and management.
The latest in this series is that the Management has now invited the recognised unions and some executive associations alone for a discussion on the HR issues connected with BSNL – MTNL Merger.
All the Unions/Associations under the banner of Forum have strongly protested the above proposal and had discussions earlier. It had submitted Memorandum to the Communicatons Minister, DOT etc. in this connection. Earlier on such common issues the Management used to discuss with the Forum.
Why the BSNL Management had taken different route now only inviting the recognised unions and some executive associations alone and avoiding the Forum/ other unions?  The same method was adopted when the JAC of Non- Executive Unions gave Charter of Demands, but was compelled to call the JAC when the recognised unions refused to participate without JAC.
Is it that the management is unwittingly fallen for ill advises?
The Management should not fall in to such traps. When the entire staff under the leadership of Forum is making all out efforts for the revival of BSNL, the Management should not act against the same.
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As we have stated earlier, Modi Govt. is bent upon selling the family silver aggressively. The government has now decided to sell shares of highly profitable PSUs, ONGC, Coal India Limited and NHPC. According to the government plan an amount of about Rs.45,000 crore is expected from these mega sales.
10% in Coal India, 5% in ONGC and 11.36% in NHPC shares will be offered. It is also planning to sell the shares of SAIL.
The Central Trade Unions and PSU unions/Federations should strongly protest  the disinvestment and defeat the govt. move.

The demand of the BSNL for 16.5% additional funds for construction of towers in naxalite areas has been rejected by DOT. BSNL was entrusted with the task of constructing around 2,000 towers in the naxal affected areas to urgently provide connectivity in these security risk areas. The work has not started as per project and it has already been delayed.
The demand for additional fund is reported to have been rejected on the plea that it will increase by about Rs. 589 crore more than the present estimate of Rs.3567.58 crore which is approved by Cabinet.
This is unfortunate. The government which gives concession after concession to the private telcos are being unsympathetic when there is a fully justified demand from the telecom PSU, that too for implementing government decision. The DOT should revise its decision and allot additional funds as required.

It is reported that there are 2,25,863 unfilled vacancies in Railways as on 1 April 2014. These include vacancies of Driver, Guard, Loco Running Staff, Station Master, Signal Inspector etc
which are crucial to the safe running of the train services.
The delay in filling up the vacancies causes heavy workload on the existing staff and security risk for the travelling public.
Modi Government should take urgent steps to ensure speedy recruitment, which will help the unemployed youth.

The NDA / BJP Government is  on a major move to corporatise the major ports which are under the Ports Trust now. There are 13 Major Ports now and two more are under formation/construction.
Now these major ports are directly run by the Port Trust which is formed through  an act of Parliament.
All are fully aware that corporatisation is the first step to privatisation. And the BJP government is bent upon handing over all the valuable PSUs to the corpotates.
There is no doubt that the workers in Port Trust will fight to defeat the sinister move.

An Emergent Meeting of the Forum will be held on 12 September 2014 at BSNLMS office at 03.00 PM to discuss about the BSNL-MTNL Merger move of the Govt. and J&K situation due to savage floods. All are requested to be present in time. VAN Namboodiri Convener Forum.

More than 150 people are dead and many thousands are stranded due to the unprecedented floods in J&K. Srinagar is submerged and hundreds of buildings have collapsed. The devastation is beyond description. Communication Services have also collapsed to a great extent.
The people of J&K are in great difficulties. Our Comrades will also be in difficulty.It is the responsibilty of the entire nation to help them.
I contacted the CMD BSNL and assured all support of the workers in restoring the Communication Sevices in the state.

CBI Director Ranjit Sinha is in real trouble. The Supreme Court has asked him to file reply against the allegations made against him that he met several VIPs at his residence many times against whom serious charges of corruption and other charges are being enquired by the CBI. Many of the cases are also dropped.
Is CBI itself part of corruption?

Continuous reports are appearing in the press about the decision of the Govt. to merge BSNL-MTNL by July next year. Today it was the statement of Shri Anupam Shrivastava, Director(CM) BSNL. Though he has mentioned about the three important issues to be settled before merger,  which the unions have demanded, there is no mention about the same.
Is the govt. and management purposely avoiding a meeting with the unions? If they think that they can go ahead without discussion with the unions, they are completely mistaken.
The workers have to prepare for a serious struggle to defemd BSNL  and its workers.