31 Monday Dec 2012
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BSNL employees are eligible for a DA increase of 4.2% w.e.f. January 2013 as per the cost of living index.The total IDA will now be 71.5% ( 67.3% plus 4.2%). Orders are yet to be issued.
The IDA has crossed the 50% months back. BSNLEU has demanded merger of 50% IDA with pay. Joint agitation is required in the matter.
31 Monday Dec 2012
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New Delhi, December 29: The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) expresses its deep sorrow at the tragic death of the brave young woman who had been a victim of brutal gangrape on a moving bus in the heart of the capital. It extends its heartfelt condolences to her family. It calls upon the government to extend all possible help now and in the future to them. It is even more tragic that had the government and the police done its duty the horrific incident could have been avoided.
The PB of the CPI(M) demands the most stringent punishment to the accused criminals.
This is not an isolated incident. Sexual assault cases are the fastest increasing crimes in India. It is essential for the government at the Centre and the states to put into place long pending required measures to prevent violence against women which have been demanded by women’s organizations and Left parties and which the government has failed to accept and implement. Such measures should include steps to ensure security, easy access to time-bound justice, punishment to officials for non-implementation, referring all pending cases to fast track courts and reformed and stringent laws against sexual assault.
31 Monday Dec 2012
The Punjab Circle Conference of the BSNL Casual and Contract Workers Union was held at Amritsar on 29th December 2012. This city is famous for its Golden Temple, which is the most holiest Gurudwara of the Sikhs. Jhalianwala Bagh is also here, where in 1919, hundreds of people, who had gathered there for a protest meting were murdered by the British.
This is also the district in which lies the Wagha border with pakistan, where many people throng in the evenings to see the border force on both sides show their military salutes etc.
Amritsar is one of the cities in the north, where the temperature is very low during winter. In fact it was very cold on the day of the conference also.
The Conference was held in a hall near the BSNL office. About 300 comrades participated, who have come from all the ditricts of Punjab. Com. R.L.Moudgil, AGS and Circle President BSNLEU presided. Coms. Balbir Singh, Circle secretary, BSNLEU, H.S.Dhillon, Dist. Secretary, Chandigarh, Sarbajit Singh, District Secretary, Amritsar,Tarsem Singh, District Secretary, Ferozpur, Kamaljit Singh, Vice-President, Baljinder Singh, Darshan Singh, Circle Secretary, BSNLCCWU, Iqbal Singh Dhillon, Bhoglal, S.S.bedi and other leaders addressed the Conference. Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri, President BSNLEU and BSNLCCWF spoke in detail about the issues of the casual and contract workers, the efforts made by the union to settle the issues, the formation of BSNLCCWF, the agitational activities etc. he also briefed the house about the deliberations in the Parliamentary Standing Committee on labour on the issues of the casual and contract worklers in BSNL. Some of the delegates also spoke, explaining the non-implementation of the orders on minimum wage etc. in their districts.
The Conference decided to strengthen the union by bringing maximum workers to its fold.The conference decided to organise the CGM Office March in January 2013 as called by the CEC meeting of BSNLCCWF.
Circle Union office-bearers were unanimously elected with Coms. Darshan Singh Ludhiana as President, Baljinder Singh Patiala as Circle secretary and Surinder Singh (Samana) Patiala as Treasurer.
15 Saturday Dec 2012
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The All India VSNL/TCL Employees Association and the terminated employees have approached the Department of telecom seeking reinstatement of employees who were terminated without any reason.
Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited was the corporation formed be separating the Overseas Communication section of the Department of telecom. This was later sold to Tata Telecommunications Limited (TCL) for a song. After taking over the VSNL, Tata changed the name to TCL. They have now terminated a good number of employees, simply stating their service is not required. They were offered either compulsory resignation or compulsory termination/dismissal. Since they did not resign, the employees with 15 to 20 years were issued with termination orders.
Since they were government employees and was made first as PSU and later private employees. Now they are terminated. DOT has got the responsibility to reinstate them as they were gov t. employees. DOT should immediately act in the matter.
The incident is a warning to all employees of Public Sector. Once disinvestment starts, privatisation will be the second stage. Once privatised the management will retrench many whom they feel is not wanted. And the job is in jeopardy.
That is one of the reasons why BSNLEU has been stoutly opposing disinvestment and privatisation and continuing its sustained agitations.
14 Friday Dec 2012
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India has got total 93.522 million connecctions including landlines and mobiles as on 31st October 2012. India with 2.122 crore landline connections has got 68.56% of market share and is the first in this sector. In the mobile sector with 12.12 crore connections moblie, BSNL is in the 5th position. In the total connections including all services, BSNL is in the fourth position with 12.96% market share. In the mobile sector Airtel with 18.64 crore is the first followed by Vodafone with 15.37 crore, Reliance Telephones with 13.52 crores and Idea WITH 11.57 CRORE.
14 Friday Dec 2012
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As always, it was very interesting and educative to attend the 8 Convention of the Telecom Employees Association of Nepal which was held t Kathmandu on 12th and 13th December. 2012. Com.P.Abhimanyu, GS BSNLEU and I reached Kathmandu by the morning flight from Delhi. The Air India flight was to start at 0730 in the morning, but due to heavy fog it could start at 1000 hours only.
We reached Kathmandu Air Port by about 1200 hours and after the immigration etc. we were out of the airport by 1230. India and Nepal being SAARC countries, the immigration is somewhat simple. However Passport is very much necessary. Otherwise it will create a lot of problems as we realised later.
Coms. Gopal Dhakal, Advisor to TEAN, and another comrade were waiting to receive us. They garlanded us and we greeted each other. We were directly taken to the Convention Place which was arranged in the Nepal Police Club conference hall. The meeting had just started at 1200 hours. The big hall was full and a lot of comrades were standing near the door and outside. The President of the TEAN Com. Ashok Kiran Karn was delivering his Presidential address. We were received as special guests and honoured by garlanding etc.
The Convention was presided over by Com. Ashok Karn, who is the President of TEAN. It was inaugurated by Com.K.P.Sharma, former Dy. Prime Minister of Nepal. Leaders of sister unions of TEAN greeted the conference. I was also requested to address the convention. In my speech I mentioned about the present financial position of BSNL, the Joint Forum’s efforts to improve the services etc. The agitation and struggles against the neo-liberalisation policies, the huge corruption cases like 2 G Spectrum, Coal Gate corruption etc. were mentioned. I concluded my speech thanking the TEAN and greetings the delegates.
The delegates’ session was held next day, 13th December. Com.Abhimanyu and I both addressed the delegates session and spoke on the various telecom issues. We gave a gold plated shield. They also presented us with some beautiful paintings. After lunch we returned to the Airport and then to New Delhi by the last Air India Flight.
We could not participate in the last day of the conference. However, we could discuss with the leaders com. Thankalal Shreshta, Gopal dhakal and Sunil Porkhel about the present position of Nepal Telecom Corporation, the organisational issues, our intervention with the management etc. It was a very fruitful discussion.
My thanks to the TEAN comrades and Greetings to them.
25 Sunday Nov 2012
Posted in Corruption, Uncategorized
Bharti-Walmart charged with bribery in India.
The Multinational Walmart and its Indian Associate Bharti Enterprises have been charged with bribery in India. Walmart operations in Brazil and China are also involved in bribery charges. Certain top officers of the company have been suspended in this connection by the company. Of course, the charges are by the US government and not by India.
In India, bribery is accepted as normal by the government and no company is being charged with the same. Those who receive bribe are punishable, but as we are seeing, not even 10% of the culprits are punished.
The fight against corruption is one of the most important tasks to be attended to urgently. And please note, that the central government is aggressively putting red carpet for the Walmart & other such MNCs.
14 Wednesday Nov 2012
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In a bid to take on the government in Parliament on its decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail, CPI(M) today said it has submitted notices in both the Houses seeking a discussion on the issue under rules entailing voting.
“In both the Houses, the CPI(M) members have given the notices and we wish to take this up for a proper discussion under rules which will entail voting,” senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters here.
“Any such decision (allowing FDI in multi-brand retail) will have to be endorsed by Parliament and the government should not go behind the cover of saying that this is an executive decision,” he said.
He said the government should take into account Parliament’s decision if it wanted to go ahead as it was “supreme in our constitutional scheme of things.”
While Yechury signed the notice in Rajya Sabha, his senior party colleague Basudeb Acharia sent the notice in Lok Sabha seeking that the two Houses reject the government’s decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail.
Rule 184 of Lok Sabha’s Rules of Business and Rule 167 in the Rajya Sabha entail voting after discussion on a matter.
The decision to move such motions was taken at a meeting of the top-brass of the CPI(M), CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc here on Monday.
13 Tuesday Nov 2012
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Welcome to Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratic voice of Myanmar and Nobel laureate to India! She was imprisoned in her home for many years by the Military Junta in Myanmar, though her party one in the elections. Now she has been freed and has come to India for a short visit on the invitation of Smt. Sonia Gandhi. Suu Kyi was a student in India and will meet many of her friends and leaders in India. A short report from “Ganashakti” on the visit is reproduced below:
Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrived here today on a visit to India after a gap of nearly four decades as part of New Delhi’s ongoing engagement with democratic and multi-party polity in that country. Suu Kyi, who is visiting India at the invitation of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, will deliver the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Lecture here tomorrow. The pro-democracy leader was received at the airport here by Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai. “The visit of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would be part of our ongoing engagement with the democratic and multi-party polity in Myanmar. It would provide opportunity to exchange views on all matters of mutual interest with a view to building upon the positive momentum in India-Myanmar relations,” according to the official spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs. “It would be recalled Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had accepted the invitation from Sonia Gandhi in her capacity as Chairperson of Nehru Memorial Fund to deliver the Nehru Memorial Lecture when she met the Prime Minister during his visit to Myanmar in May 2012,” the spokesperson said. Suu Kyi was also given the Jawaharlal Nehru award for international understanding in 1992. During her nearly week-long stay, Suu Kyi will visit her alma mater, Lady Sri Ram College, where she will interact with the faculty and students. Besides her engagements in Delhi, she will be travelling to Bangalore where she will visit the Indian Institute of Science and the Infosys Campus. She is also scheduled to tour rural areas in Andhra Pradesh to gain a first-hand impression of rural development and women’s empowerment programmes being undertaken in India. Suu Kyi spent several years in India during her early days when her mother Daw Khin Yi was Ambassador to India. She also spent some time as a Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study in Shimla in 1987.
08 Thursday Nov 2012
Posted in General, Uncategorized
The living legend CPI(M) leader Com. Samar Mukherjee had his 100th Birth Day on 7th November 2012. A comrade who have been a an energetic Member of Parliament, who took up many important issues of the workers and people, a member of the Politburo of CPI(M) and respected by all has reached the centenary year. He was felicitated in a meeting held at Kolkata attended by senior leaders of the party and many others. Usually, CPI(M) does not organise birthday celebrations and this was as exception.
I had the opportunities to meet Com. Samar Mukherjee on a few occasions. While he was staying at the Parliamentary Party Office, New Delhi, I met him requesting to take up some issues of the telecom workers in the Parliament. He took up the matter immediately. He was so simple in his manners and I felt no difficulty in interacting with him.
My Best Wishes and Greetings to Com. Samar Mukherjee! Wish him many returns of the Day!
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