Former MP and CITU secretary, Dipankar Mukherjee, wrote the following letter to minister of labour and chairman of CBT (EPF), Mallikarjun Kharge, on March 23, 2012 seeking urgent intervention to restore the rate of interest for EPF to 9.5 per cent that had been slashed to 8.25 per cent by the finance ministry. A copy of the letter has also been sent to Central Provident Fund Commissioner, R C Mishra.

IT is really shocking that while the rate of interest for General Provident Fund (GPF) has been rightly hiked from 8 per cent to 8.6 per cent vide a notification by the Ministry of Finance dated March 19, 2012, the rate of interest to Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) members had been unilaterally slashed by the same ministry a few days back from 9.5 per cent to 8.25 per cent, ignoring the demand of the employees’ representatives in the Central Board of Trustees EPF meeting held on 22.12.2011 to maintain the interest rate at 9.5 per cent. As you may be kindly aware, this is an unprecedented decision whereby EPF rate has been pegged at a lower level than GPF. I am afraid this will be quite embarrassing to CBT, headed by you, coupled with strong resentment of 5 crore workforce covered by EPF.

The decision of finance ministry to reduce the EPF rate of interest becomes more irrational and unacceptable as a similar hike in interest rate from 8 per cent to 8.6 per cent has also been effected in Special Deposit Scheme (SDS) where a large proportion of EPF corpus is invested. As a matter of fact in the CBT meeting on 23.12.2011, employees’ representatives had urged the government to increase SDS rate of interest to facilitate declaration of higher rate of interest for EPF.

In view of the above, I urge upon you to immediately take up the issue with finance ministry on behalf of CBT so that the unjustified decision of reduction in EPF rate of interest is reviewed and interest rate of 9.5 per cent is restored, in order to avoid industrial unrest caused by the unilateral decision of the finance ministry. This may please be treated as ‘MOST URGENT’.

Load-shedding from today has been ordered by the Kerala Electricity Board from today, 2nd April. It was only expected as the UDF government did not take sufficient care about the systematic arrangement of electric supply. During the entire five years of LDF government, there was no power cut at all, due to its continuous and sustained efforts to ensure electricity supply to the people.

From today onwards, there will be load shedding for half an hour every day between 1830 and 2230 hours. The government failed utterly in getting additional supply from the central pool also.

It was real summer rain.

I am now at Calicut.  After visiting the Exhibition in connection with the CPI(M) Party Congress  and chatting with the comrades there, I went to Arya Bhawan restaurant and had snacks instead of dinner. When I came out of the restaurant,  all of a sudden a  dust wind  started followed with very heavy rain.I stood in the veranda of a shop to avoid getting wet. It was heavy rain and all searched for some place to stand without being drenched.

The rain continued for about half an hour. The streets were all full of the rain water. All those people who have come to shopping and enjoying the Sunday got completely drenched. But all were happy that at least the rain has come.Every year one or two such rains will be there in summer.

I was also happy although I got completely wet and  had to wait a long time to get a bus to my residence.

Summer rain is a consolation to reduce the heat at the time of examinations.

The Department of Posts (DoP) is planning to set up 1,000Aautomated Teller Machines (ATMs) across six states –Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu — under its ongoing modernisation plan, according to a top official. There is aq big plan to computerize the remaining post offices also.

Many countries, including India has observed yesterday, 31st March, Earth Hour, turning of the lights for one hour. This is as per the call of the environmental group  World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to minimise use of energy and save it for the next generation.

In March 2007 Earth Hour began in, Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million individuals and over 2,000 businesses turned out their lights and took a stand against climate change. It quickly became an annual global event. More than 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries worldwide switched off their lights for Earth Hour 2011. Earth Hour 2011 also ushered in a new era with members going Beyond the Hour to commit to lasting action for the planet. Without a doubt, Earth Hour has shown how great things can be achieved when people come together for a common cause.

In India, Rashtrapati Bhawan, Central Secretariat and many offices switched off the lights for one hour yesterday.

New Delhi, Mar 31 Passengers travelling in AC 1 and AC 2 classes will have to shell out more from tomorrow when the upward revision in higher class fares will come into effect. The fare is also being hiked in Executive class and first class as per the Rail Budget 2012-13 announcement. The revised tariff will also be applicable to tickets tickets issued in advance for journey to commence on or after April 1, 2012. “In case tickets are already issued at pre-revised rates, the difference in fares will be recovered from passengers either by TTEs in trains or by the booking offices before commemcement of the journey,” said a senior Railway Ministry official. As per the decision, passenger fares will be increased 10 paise per km in first class, 15 paisa per km for AC 2 and 30 paisa per km for AC 1 from April 1. The platform ticket is also to cost Rs 5 from tomorrow, said the official. Though there was proposal for fare hike in all classes including AC III, sleeper class, suburban and second class in the Rail Budget, new Railway Minister Mukul Roy decided for partial roll back of fares in these classes. Railways have earned Rs 28,000 crore revenue from passenger fares in 2011-12. The national transporter was aiming to earn Rs 36,000 crore in 2012-13 with the five per cent expected growth in passenger volume in 2012-13 and the hike in all classes as proposed by the former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi. However, now with the roll back in major classes like AC III and second class, railways is expected to earn only Rs 400 crore from the hike in AC 1, AC 2 and first class fares. The revised fare list is being displayed at all stations for public and the changed fare tables are also availble on the ministry website, said the official.