After many years I am visiting Varanasi once again. Of course, there is change.
The city has grown and has become more congested. It was almost impossible to go through the huge crowd to reach the the ghats of  Ganges where thousands and thousands were waiting to see the Ganga Arti performed.
When returning in a cycle riksha through the congested narrow streets of the city, where lakhs of tourists and bhaktas are visiting every day, I was thinking how PM Modi is going to implement the promises he has made to his electorate of Varanasi to clean and upgrade it. And our comrade who was with us said that even after six months, nothing of importance has started so far.
Promises are to be kept, that is what the people of Varanasi want to remind Narendra Modi, their M.P. and PM.

The UP Circle Conference of BSNLCCWF is being held at Varanasi today, 22 November 2014.
UP ( East) is one circle, where the minimum wage is denied, EPF is not implemented etc. In addition, the Circle Secretary  Com.S.P.Tiwari and many other workers are retrenched for union activities. I am attending the conference.
The conference will certainly discuss all these issues and take necessary decisions.

Yesterday, along with my wife, I visited Saranath, where Budha is stated to have given his first sermon to his five disciples. After decline of Budhism in India, the place was probably vacated and forgotten.
The place which wss a centre of learning with Budhist temples and monastries were unearthed and excavated in the later part of 18th century. The high Stupa, the broken remains of Ashoka Chakra and the remains of temples, monastries etc. hints to a golden age of Budhist religion in India.
A large number of pilgrims are seen there, many from Japan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar ( Burmah) etc. which are mainly Budhist countries.
Certainly a place to visit to find out the roots of our civilisation.

The decision of the Joint Action Committee of Non-Exevutives in BSNL not to attend the meeting called by BSNL Management to discuss on strike issues is correct, since only the recognised unions have been called, ignoring the JAC. Any compromise on this issue will cause rupture in the JAC and is to be avoided.

Massive Protest Demonstrations took place in front of all BSNL offices on  20 November 2014 demanding settlememt of the 30 main demands included in the Charter presented to the BSNL Mianagement. If the issues are not resolved one day strike will take place on 27 November as scheduled.
Management has called both the recognised umions for discussion. When the notice have been issued by the JAC, then JAC should be called. The move to ignore JAC should be strongly resisted.

I am on the way to Varanasi to attend a meeting of the BSNL Casual & Contract Workers. The Train is one hour late. Most of the time the trains are late.
The Railway is the biggest transport industry and service in the country. Decades back, it was famous for punctuality and efficiency. But the wrong policies of the government, acute staff shortage, non-renewal and non-laying of additional tracks while number of trains are increased, all these are what gives a wrong image.
It is time that the Government does something to improve the present condition.

It is reported that Chairman TRAI Rahul Khullar has released a consultation paper on change of interconnect charges. Interconection charge is the charge that the telecom operator from which the call is made has to pay the telecom operator to which the call is connected.

It is surprising that even  after  five foreign banks have denied loan to Adani group for the Austalian minig project, the SBI has funded the same with Rs. 6,100 crores. Is it the closeness with the Prime Minister, than the viability of the project that this decision shows?

Both the earlier UPA and present NDA government can take ‘pride’ that India is in top position in one more itme ; that is open defecation. About 825 million people allover the world do not use toilets. Out of that India has 597 million, the largest in tje world. It is a shame to both Congress and BJP that despite ruling the country several times, they could not improve the sad situation. In fact it has worsened.

What the NDA government is going to do in this matter? Will Swatccha Bharat be more than a slogan?