Consequent to central government decision to sell BSNL assets, Airtel, Vodafone and Idea increased mobile charges by 20 to 25%. If BSNL and MTNL are further weakened, the charges are liable to be increased by 5 to 10 times by private telcos. About 100 crore subscribers of private telecoms to be adversely affected.

Remember the continued increase of petrol, diesel and cooking gas after the oil prices were decontrolled.

24th November 2021 is the 67th Anniversary of the formation of National Federation of P & T Employees ( NFPTE), the mighty organisation which organised many historic struggles along with Confederation, raising the just and reasonable demands of Central govt employees.
NFPTE was formed in 1954 by merging all existing unions in P&T Department. Unions in P&T were formed as early as the first decade of 20th century and organised many struggles in the first two decades and achieved important demands. Babu Tarapada Mukherjee, Henry Barton and V.G.Dalvi were the founding fathers of the three main unions. Some of these leaders also were part of formation of AITUC, the first Trade Union in the country. The epic 22 days struggle of P&T workers in 1946 in which the British rulers were compelled to concede all the demands raised, is considered as part of Independence Struggle.
Formation of NFPTE in 1954 and Confederation of CG Employees in 1956 gave a new life to the central govt employees movement. The result was the magnificient strikes of 1960 and 1968 in which a number of comrades became martyrs for the cause of the working class. The main demands were needbased minimum wage and DA according to cost of living index.
The second demand is achieved and struggles continue for the first. Of course, much improvement have taken place and the demand is now raised by the entire working class.
The heroic strike of 1974 was another mile stone. The railway workers were the real heroes who fought till the last. The strike was brutally suppressed by the government, but the demand of was achieved by 1979.
Comrades Dada Ghosh, O.P.Gupta, K.G.Bose,P.S.R.Anjaneyulu, N.J.Iyer, K.Adinarayana and many others led the movement through those difficult times.
Consequent to bifurcation of P&T Department, NFPTE was bifurcated in to NFPE and NFTE in 1986. The history of both is also that of struggles, although vaccilation took place sometimes. After formation of BSNL, the newly formed BSNL Employees Union has become the true inheritor of the valiant tradition of NFPTE in the telecom sector.

Since 1991, both the UPA as well as NDA govts had aggressively taken the disastorous path of globalisation, privatisation and liberalisation causing more and more misery to the people. Public Sector Units are being privatised. The present Modi Govt has declared that ‘ business is not the business of the govt’ and is selling the PSUs to corporates for a song. Rights of workers are being curtailed. Working class as well as Kisans are on struggles for existence. P&T workers are also part of this great struggle.

On this 67th anniversary of NFPTE we salute all those leaders and workers who lived and showed a dedicated and militant path for the future generations. Red Salute to those martyrs who sacrificed their valuable lives so that the future generations may live a better life.

( A few copies of the book ‘ HISTORY OF P&T TRADE UNION MOVEMENT’ authored by V.A.N.Namboodiri with introduction by Com.A.K.Padmanabhan, then President CITU and Com. (Late) M.Krishnan, then Secretary General Confederation of CG Employees & Workers and published by Com.R.N.Parashar, SG NFPE are available with CHQ NFPE Delhi for sale).

V.A.N.Namboodiri

My Facebook page has been restored now. Thanks to FB /META

T.Nadu AIBDPA comrades have once again shown that they will spare no pains to advance the cause of the pensioners and the organisation.

It was the first time after the Covid pandemic started that I visited and participated in an AIBDPA meeting in T.Nadu. Com.N.Kuppusamy, Circle Secretary AIBDPA, insisted that I should attend their Circle Working Committee on 19th Nov. being held at Trichy. Despite heavy rain and floods in Chennai and some other parts of T.Nadu, almost all office-bearers and other CWC members attended. While inaugurating the CWC, I mentioned about the necessity of revival of BSNL, our responsibility, main demands, the need for united struggles etc. Before the inauguration, I was garlanded and honored with shawls by almost all the CWC members as also Reception Committee. The love and affection shown by the comrades are beyond description. Com.C.K.Narasimhan, Circle President, presided and Welcome Speeches delivered by both Com.N.Kuppusamy, Circle Secretary and Com.T.John Batcha, Dist Secretary. Coms. S.Mohandoss, All India Vice President and Com.K.Pankajavally, All India Asst. Treasurer addressed. The CWC was greeted by Coms. G.Sundararaju, DS, BSNLEU and G.Mubarak Ali, DS, TNTCWU. The CWC after discussion have taken a decision to enroll maximum number of pensioners as members as also to increase subscribers to Telepensioner. Other important decisions were taken. Though my train back to Kozhikode was early in the morning at about 04.30, some comrades came sufficiently in advance and helped me and saw to it that I boarded the train without any difficulty. Once again the T.Nadu AIBDPA comrades have shown that they are in the forefront on the path of advancement. Thanks Comrades!

As reported earlier, my Facebook account seems to be hacked or attacked. Neither I am getting other’s posts nor I am able to post anything. Let us wait for some more time to see whether it becomes OK.

After sending out about 80,000 employees, about half of the entire workforce in BSNL, there seems to be acute shortage of staff to attend to normal working. No new recruitment is being made. Out of the the total of about one lakh casual and contract workers, through retrenchment, the number has been reduced to about 10,000. Faults are increasing, delay is occurring and subscriber satisfaction is coming down. There is no doubt for anybody that more staff are required. Whether the management is taking any action in this connection?

It is reported in the media that BSNL Management has written to TCS that the latter is not preparing the infrastructure as required for starting of 4G by BSNL. In such case immediate action is to be taken by BSNL for getting it speeded up . Already muct time has been wasted.

Central government should increase the present monthly pension of Rs. 200 to at least to Rs. 2000 for the old aged citizens above 60 years eligible as per the above social security measure.