Monthly Archives: July 2015

Struggles by Workers to Defend and Save BSNL : 2004 – 2015 ( 29 )

16 Thursday Jul 2015

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Memorandum to the  Communications Minister

In the general elections, UPA was  defeated and the NDA government was formed with Shri Narendra Modi as Prime Minister. Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad is the new Communications & IT Minister. Immediately on taking over charge, he stated that revival of BSNL and MTNL is his priority. He criticized the earlier government for not attending to the requirement of these two PSUs.

In these circumstances, the Forum in its meeting on 22-05-2014 took the decision to submit a Memorandum to the Communications Minister.

The Memorandum dated 26-05-2014 with the following demands was submitted to the Communications Minister .

  1. Honouring of Assurances given to BSNL at the time of Corporatisation
  2. Providing Financial Assistance to BSNL
  3. Refund of Spectrum charges paid by BSNL to government
  4. Formation of new / subsidiary companies disintegrating BSNL to be stopped.
  5. Filling up of directors of BSNL Board
  6. Pension Contribution on the basis of actual pay instead of the maximum of the payscale.
  7. BSNL/MTNL Services to be made mandatory for Central/State/PSU establishments
  8. Absorption of ITS officers
  9. 78.2% IDA Merger for BSNL Pensioners

The Memorandum was signed by Comrades V.A.N.Namboodiri, Convener, Forum, Suresh Kumar (BSNLMS), Islam Ahamed(NFTE), Prahlad Rai(AIBSNLEA), R.P.Sharma(BSNLOA), Sunil Gautam(SNATTA), R.K.Ram(BTU), Gajendra Kumar(BTEU), R.K.Kohli (NFTBE), P.Abhimanyu(BSNLEU) Jayaprakash (FNTO) and K.Sebastin (SNEA(I).

Passive Infrastructure Agreement between BSNL and Reliance

When it came to the notice of the Forum that an agreement has been made between BSNL and Reliance for passive infrastructure of the BSNL towers, it held a meeting immediately on 18-07-2014 and discussed the issue. The Forum decided to demand the management to immediately provide it with all details of the agreement, after which the Forum will discuss again.

M/s Deloitte Committee Recommendations opposed

In the meanwhile  M/s Deloittee Consultants, which was engaged by the BSNL Management gave its recommendations with regard to the financial viability and revival of BSNL. There was no discussion or consultation with the unions/associations. The recommendations including VRS, combing SSAs, reducing the sanction of staff etc. were completely against the interest of BSNL as well as its workers. The meeting of the Forum held on 04-08-2014 strongly opposed the recommendations and decided to organize agitational programmes for rejecting the same.

  1. Protest demonstrations on 12th August 2014 at Corporate office/Circle/SSAs.
  2. A Press statement to be issued against the retrograde recommendations of Deloitte Consultants
  3. Meet the Communications Minister on this issue.

The demonstrations in Delhi was held on 21st August  2014 so as to adjust with the meeting of the Heads of BSNL Circles at that day at Corporate Office. All the programmes were successfully organized. But however, no meeting with the minister could be arranged. (To be continued)

Fast Internet facility for Kolkata by BSNL

15 Wednesday Jul 2015

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BSNL Launched latest Unlimited Broadband Plan for the internet users of Kolkata, the famous city located on east bank of Hooghly river. At this time BSNL offers New postpaid broadband plan(BBG Combo ULD 695 CS72) with high speed unlimited internet at lowest rates having unlimited free calling.

As of now, Kolkata BSNL Broadband internet users are using 512Kbps internet speed for Rs.675, but now this has been changed by offering 8times faster high speed internet than previous plan with an increment of just Rs.20 in monthly rental charges for subscription of latest Broadband Plan with FUP Limit.(Press Report)

17 Left Parties’ Maha Rally in W.Bengal against Corruption of BJP, TMC Governments

15 Wednesday Jul 2015

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17 Left Parties have decided to organize a Maha-Rally protesting against unprecedented scams like Sardha perpetrated by Trinamool and Byapaom by BJP that deprived millions of people, said Left Front Chairman Biman Basu at a Press Conference after 17 Left Parties met at Muzaffar Ahmed Bhavan Friday.
Biman Basu while addressing the press after the meeting stated that ‘a bunch of serious financial scams have already come out within just a year of BJP government. A series of scams is coming out against Foreign Minister Sushma  Swaraj, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Human Resource Minister Smriti Irani, MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Maharastra Minister Pankaja Munde etc. On the other hand the ruling Trinamool Congress is overtly associated with Sardha and other Chit Fund Scams. A group of Ministers of Trinamool Government is proved to be associated with the Sardha Scam. 17 Left Parties have therefore decided to organize a huge Rally protesting against the scam-ridden Trinamool Congress and BJP. Besides the rally movements will be organized throughout the month of August’.
‘We 17 Left Parties from our meeting held on 3rd July had a primary discussion to organize a Rally on 20th July demanding immediate repayment of money to the affected small investors. Later 6 Left Parties’ meeting in Delhi on 5th July decided to organize Anti-Corruption Rally in the whole country. However an Anti-Corruption Day will also be observed on that day’, said Biman Basu.
‘The Rally will start from College Square and end at Rani Rashmoni Road covering College street, Nirmal Chandra Street, Wellington Square’. Biman Basu also stated that ‘the 17 Left Parties will also actively support the Hartaal and General Strike called by All Central Trade Unions. The Anti-Labour Reform of the Labour Law, revamp of all closed factories, the draconian Land Acquisition Bill etc are all the issues of the Strike. The 17 Left Parties will initiate campaign struggle throughout the month of August’. (Ganashakti)

 

Number of Telephones increase to 100 crore

15 Wednesday Jul 2015

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India’s telephone customer base crossed 100 crore mark.

India’s telephone customer base has crossed the 100 crore mark in May 2015. According to reports, the total mobile connections were 975.78 million at the end of May 2015. The number of landline connections was 26.27 million. In the mobile segment private operators are holding 91.68% market share, while BSNL and MTNL put together, hold 8.32% market share. In the landline segment BSNL and MTNL hold 74.54% market share. The total number of broadband customers was 104.96 million. In these, Airtel holds 23.39 million, Vodafone holds 21.27 million, BSNL holds 18.50 million, Idea holds 15.76 million and Reliance holds 8.99 million connections.(BSNLEU website)

Muslim League Goons Destroy Text Books in Kerala

15 Wednesday Jul 2015

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Thiruvananthapuram; July 14, 2015: Muslim League goons destroyed the text books distributed by SFI in schools in Tirur (Malappuram), Kerala. SFI has been distributing text books in publicly-funded schools all over Kerala during the past few days, as a mark of protest against the huge delay in the distribution of text books by the Congress-led UDF government.

The Education Minister is from the Muslim League, and the Muslim League goons in Kainikkara near Tirur found it intolerable that activists of SFI and DYFI are exposing the failures of the Education Minister and the government through this protest which has gained enormous support from the people of the state. The League goons attacked SFI activists, grabbed the copies of the Std. IV English text books that were brought for distribution and destroyed them. A few SFI activists suffered minor injuries in the attack. (A report by NS Sajith)

 

Struggles by Workers to Defend and Save BSNL : 2004 – 2015 ( 28 )

15 Wednesday Jul 2015

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Memorandum to the  Communications Minister

In the general elections, UPA was  defeated and the NDA government was formed with Shri Narendra Modi as Prime Minister. Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad is the new Communications & IT Minister. Immediately on taking over charge, he stated that revival of BSNL and MTNL is his priority. He criticized the earlier government for not attending to the requirement of these two PSUs.

In these circumstances, the Forum in its meeting on 22-05-2014 took the decision to submit a Memorandum to the Communications Minister.

The Memorandum dated 26-05-2014 with the following demands was submitted to the Communications Minister .

  1. Honouring of Assurances given to BSNL at the time of Corporatisation
  2. Providing Financial Assistance to BSNL
  3. Refund of Spectrum charges paid by BSNL to government
  4. Formation of new / subsidiary companies disintegrating BSNL to be stopped.
  5. Filling up of directors of BSNL Board
  6. Pension Contribution on the basis of actual pay instead of the maximum of the payscale.
  7. BSNL/MTNL Services to be made mandatory for Central/State/PSU establishments
  8. Absorption of ITS officers
  9. 78.2% IDA Merger for BSNL Pensioners

The Memorandum was signed by Comrades V.A.N.Namboodiri, Convener, Forum, Suresh Kumar (BSNLMS), Islam Ahamed(NFTE), Prahlad Rai(AIBSNLEA), R.P.Sharma(BSNLOA), Sunil Gautam(SNATTA), R.K.Ram(BTU), Gajendra Kumar(BTEU), R.K.Kohli (NFTBE), P.Abhimanyu(BSNLEU) Jayaprakash (FNTO) and K.Sebastin (SNEA(I).

Passive Infrastructure Agreement between BSNL and Reliance

When it came to the notice of the Forum that an agreement has been made between BSNL and Reliance for passive infrastructure of the BSNL towers, it held a meeting immediately on 18-07-2014 and discussed the issue. The Forum decided to demand the management to immediately provide it with all details of the agreement, after which the Forum will discuss again.

M/s Deloitte Committee Recommendations opposed

In the meanwhile  M/s Deloittee Consultants, which was engaged by the BSNL Management gave its recommendations with regard to the financial viability and revival of BSNL. There was no discussion or consultation with the unions/associations. The recommendations including VRS, combing SSAs, reducing the sanction of staff etc. were completely against the interest of BSNL as well as its workers. The meeting of the Forum held on 04-08-2014 strongly opposed the recommendations and decided to organize agitational programmes for rejecting the same.

  1. Protest demonstrations on 12th August 2014 at Corporate office/Circle/SSAs.
  2. A Press statement to be issued against the retrograde recommendations of Deloitte Consultants
  3. Meet the Communications Minister on this issue.

The demonstrations in Delhi was held on 21st August  2014 so as to adjust with the meeting of the Heads of BSNL Circles at that day at Corporate Office. All the programmes were successfully organized. But however, no meeting with the minister could be arranged. (To be continued)

Will BRICS and AIIB will be able to break the monopoly of IMF and WB ?

14 Tuesday Jul 2015

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“The establishment of the BRICS New Development Bank, an emergency reserve fund, and the AIIB will break the monopoly position of the International Money Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB),” said the article written by Liu Zengyi, research fellow of Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.

“It will motivate the IMF and the WB to function more normatively, democratically, and efficiently, in order to promote the reform of international financial system as well as democratisation of international relations, it said.” (Press Report).

We ope that the BRICS and AIIB is able to break the monopoly of IMF and World bank as stated in the above report.

 

 

Struggles by Workers to Defend and Save BSNL : 2004 – 2015 ( 27 )

14 Tuesday Jul 2015

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2014

Memorandum to the Prime Minister

As per the decision of the Forum, a Memorandum was prepared and presented to the Prime Minister on 14-02-2014 on the following burning issues facing BSNL and its workers:

  1. No Merger of BSNL and MTNL without settling the question of MTNL’s huge liability and disinvestment as also the HR Issues
  2. No formation of subsidiary Tower Company as proposed
  3. Revival of BSNL.
  4. Loss on rural services should be compensated to BSNL
  5. Provide soft loan to BSNL for procurement of equipment etc.

The Forum also expressed it s strong protest against the non-discussion of these issues by the BSNL Management as also DOT.

Lunch Hour Demonstrations on 28-02-2014

As per decision of the Forum meeting held on 27-02-2014, lunch hour demonstrations were held on 28-02-2014 against merger of BSNL & MTNL and formation of companies bifurcating BSNL. Though at short notice,  the programme was well responded by the workers.

Superannuation benefits of Directly Recruited employees

The Forum leaders met the High Power Committee appointed by the Management on 14-02-2014 and discussed about the superannuation benefits to the BSNL recruited employees. Forum leaders insisted for 30% benefits as per the guide lines of DPE. The management was prepared to provide only 20%. A detailed letter on our demands was given to the management.

Merger of BSNL and MTNL

The Forum wrote a strong letter to the BSNL Management and DOT opposing the proposed merger of BSNL and MTNL and warned that if any arbitrary decision is taken, the workers will be compelled to go on agitational programmes including indefinite strike. It was assured by DOT that the concerns raised by the unions will be taken in to consideration and the unions will be consulted before any final decision is taken.

Pension Contribution

Forum demanded the DOT that the pension  contribution to be paid by BSNL to DOT should be on the actual basic salary and not on the maximum of the scale as is being calculated at present. No decision was taken in the matter. (To be continued)

For Ideological Battle, Political Consciousness has to develop

13 Monday Jul 2015

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“Ideological battle can’t be carried out only from one centre or the other. Political consciousness has to develop everywhere so as to carry out such a struggle. “
P. Sundarayya, former General Secretary, CPI(M)

All India Kisan Sabha extends support to 2nd September 2015 strike

13 Monday Jul 2015

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The All India Council of All India Kisan Sabha held at Wardha, Maharashtra from 10th to 12th July, 2015 has extended its full support to the one day strike on 2nd September 2015 called for by the 11 Central Trade Unions and Al India Federations, against the anti-labour policy of the government and on other demands of the working class and the people. The council strongly opposed the Amendments to the Land Bill, which are anti-kisan.