Comrade Tapan Sen , General Secretary CITU and Member of Parliament, while participating in the discussion on the Lok Pal Bill in Rajya Sabha yesterday, 29th December, while mentioning about the wide-spread corruption in the country, mentioned about the serious exploitation and corruption while employing contract workers. He stated that this corruption all over India will be bigger than the 2G scam. From experience in BSNL, we know what is happening in this sector while employing contract labour. The government even did not respond to the charge.

I thank comrade Tapan Sen for exposing the government about the corruption in the unorganised sector as also in the PSUs on this issue.

Good news for retired employees! The demand raised by the BSNL Employees Union in the National Council and also the demand raised by the AIBDPA for allotting quarters to the retired employees has been accepted and orders issued, today,   vide BSNL No.482-16/2007-BG dated 30-12-2011. The management was unnecessarily delaying the issue of orders though it has accepted the demand in the National Council meeting held in June 2011 itself. This will benefit many retired persons. Many comrades have been enquiring about the same. The copy of the order is put in the website of BSNLEU, www.bsnleuchq.com

The  UPA government utterly failed to pass the Lok Pal Bill in the Rajya Sabha yesterday. Had they accepted the modifications suggested by the opposition to make the weak bill as a strong bill, it could have been adopted by majority in Rajya Sabha. Instead the government cleverly manipulated the time and ensured that no voting takes place since they are in minority. The Rajya Sabha has adjourned sine die. The future of the bill is not clear. It seems that the same will have to be presented in the Rajya Sabha again.

It is now very clear that the UPA government is against a strong Lok Pal Bill. The people will have to put pressure on the UPA government.

The  issues of the casual/contract workers have to be urgently settled, since they are pending for a very long time and there is no justification to further delay settlement. The inhuman exploitation  of these labour has to be put an end to. The New Year 2012 is to be treated as the Year of the Casual and Contract Labour and all efforts to be made to see that their issues are settled.

As the first action, the BSNLCCWF is addressing letters to Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister, Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, Labour Minister, Shri Kapil Sibal, Communications Minister, Chief Labour Commissioner and CMD seeking urgent settlement. Further, BSNLCCWF Secretary General Com. Tapas Ghosh, Vice-President Com. Animesh Mitra and other leaders will be meeting the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour when it meets at Kolkata on 2nd January 2012. The President (Myself) has already met the Standing Committee earlier and presented all the facts and issues.

My suggestion is that 28th February 2012, when the entire workers are going on a one day nationwide strike in which the issues of casual/contract/unorganised workers have been given a prominent place,, should be observed as Casual and Contract Workers Day by the BSNL CC Workers.

Unite and Organise to settle the justified demands!

The 150 Birth Anniversary of the great Poet and Nobel Laurate Rabindra Nath Tagore starts today – A report from Dacca, the capital of Bangladesh, where India and Bangladesh together is organising a three day festival, Rabindra Utsav.

Dhaka, Dec 29 : Bangladesh may have created a record today in the world of music when one thousand singers– male and female mostly from Bangladesh and India played songs penned by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore .
Noted composer and music director from Kolkata , Debojyoti Mishra conducted one-hour long inaugural musical orchestra “Shohosro Konthe Gaan” ( song by thousand voice) performed by one thousand Tagore singers from across the country . It thus lightened up the exclusive musical extravaganza which has been described as the first of its kind in the country.
Organizers said this is the biggest festival of Rabindranath Tagore any where in the world.
Today’s program was the start of a three-day Rabindra Utsav in the city to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore.
Bangladesh and India are jointly (at government level) celebrating year long 150th birth anniversary of Tagore, the poet who has the rare distinction of penning the national anthems of two countries.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the gala event this afternoon at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city organized by music school Shurer Dhara, run by eminent Rabindrasangeet singer Rezwana Banya . Speaking on the occasion, Sheikh Hasina said Rabindrath is intimately linked with all aspects of our life..She reiterated her government’s commitment to set up a university in Bangladesh after Rabindranath who Hasina mentioned has spent a size-able part of his life in present day Bangladesh.
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen who was present as the chief guest at the event, unveiled an album of 22 DVDs containing 2300 songs, dance drama and opera titled” Shruti Geetabitan” .Four hundred Bangladeshi Tagore singers have recorded the songs of Geetabitan.
Noted Tagore exponents, poets, litterateurs and educationists from countries other than Bangladesh and India are taking part in the event that also features eight seminars at the venue.
A 35-member international orchestra named “Gandharvaloka Orchestra”, featuring star musicians and singers from over 15 countries — Canada, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, the USA, the UK, Scotland, the Netherlands, Columbia, Brazil, Poland, Slovakia, Macedonia, Iceland and New Zealand performed Tagore songs at the program.
Professor Emeritus Anisuzzaman , president of festival organising council chaired the inaugural function.  (By courtsey ‘Ganashakti’)

The BSNL Casual and Contract Workers Federation has been continuously writing letters to the Corporate Office and also to the CMD BSNL for settlement of the issues of the Casual and Contract workers engaged in BSNL, mainly implementation of minimum wage, social security measures like EPF and ESI and also reinstate the retrenched workers and stop harassment of trade union leaders etc.  There has been a complete silence from the corporate office, including the CMD. Neither any action is taken to implement the law of the land on the payment of minimum wage or social security measures.

Are the workers to understand that the management has nothing to do ? Or is the silence an admission of guilt that top management can not get the government of India and its own orders got implemented by its field offices. It is a shame on the BSNL itself that it is part of the exploitation of the lowest paid worker who has been toiling for the DOT/BSNL for the last so many years. It is not for promotion, it is not for pension, it is not for other benefits that these workers are demanding; It is only to get the minimum wage decided by the government so that they can feed their family. Will the CMD and top management open their eyes?

All over India, you can see the magnificent forts and palaces the Emperors, Kings, Nawabs, Sultans and other have built  for their use. Many of them are tourist centres and some of them are converted to Five Star Hotels. Those forts and palaces, on one side show the architectural and cultural tradition of the land, but on the other side is story of the exploitation of labour of the thousands of slaves and the ordinary work force who were compelled to work  without payment for their labour.

Now, new palaces and forts are being built, not by kings and emperors but by the rich and crorepatis. They include businessmen, super stars, cricket players etc.  The media has reported today that for much cover they have insured these palaces. It will show how much costly the buildings are.

Mukesh Ambani – ‘Antilla’ in Mumbai – Insured for Rs. 150 crore

Sha Rukh Khan –  ‘Mannat’ in Mumbai – Insured for Rs. 110 crore.

Amitabh Bhachan –                Mumbai-   Insured for Rs. 100 crore

Sachin Tendulkar-                 Mumbai-   Insured for Rs. 100 crore

There may be hundreds of such new palaces unknown. Crore and crore are spent for such places and luxuries of life. But what about the many crore of poor people in the country who don’t even have a shed to live in. What about the lakhs of poor in Delhi who are shivering in the extreme cold in the unsatisfactory  shelters provided for them? Is this discrimination and inequality going down or will increase? The Government is certainly bound to answer these inconvenient questions!

Life Insurance Corporation, the No.1 brand in the country, has once again shown its high credentials in customer service. It has far surpassed the private insurance companies not only in market share but also in settling more % of claims, earlier settlement and better customer service.

According to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, LIC has performed better in terms of claim settlement ratio compared to private insurance companies.  Settlement of claims increased from 96.54% from 2009-10 to 97.03% in 2010-11 by LIC while the settlement ratio for private companies stood at 86.04% only in 2010-11, a differnece of more than 10%.  The % of claims rejected y LIC stood at a meagre 0.01% only in 2010-11, while for the private companies it is 8.90% in the same period. The pending claims in LIC are only 0.3%, while for private companies it is a big 5.36%.

This is the picture in the Insurance Sector, the Public Sector LIC shining with its better customer service, leaving the private companies far behind. Can’t the BSNL management and workers together strive hard to achieve the market leader position as also have a better customer service? It is not impossible but hard. We will have to fight against the anti-PSU policy of the government which is part of the neo-liberal policy. But, for the existence of BSNL, such a fight is unavoidable. The telecom workers and management are capable but the determination and committment are required in abundance.

Indian National Congress formed in 1885 at Bombay is completing 126 long years of its existence on today, 28th December 2011.   The limited aim was to get more benefit for the Indians under the British rule. It was not a confrontationalist  line, but to get the maximum benefits in a given situation.

But gradually it developed in to a national organisation fighting for freedom for the country. After Mahatma Gandhi came to the scene it expanded and reached to the far corners of the country. After sustained struggles,  Indian people got independence in 1947. In the first elections, Congress  won with big majority and became the rulers of India.

What happened afterwards is well-known. Now no party can rule on its own. Only coalition government can survive, whether UPA or NDA. But the Congress has changed after the initial years of Independence. Now it has become a party of the haves and the big business. The neo-liberalisation policy that it is implementing is not for the poor but for the rich. The working class are antagonized.

186 years of Congress Party has resulted in the distance of the party from the masses. If the present anti-people policy continues, further alienation is sure to come.

Who said that the UPA government is slow on the ‘reforms’? As assured to the USA government several times by the Indian Government, the latter is pushing through ‘reforms’ in all sectors. Even  Defence sector is being opened up to the private big business and corporates. Telecom had already been opened up and the private companies are in a comfortable position, thanks to the undue favours given to them by the government. Now the government is helping them to consolidate and form cartels, who can control the entire industry. The Telecom Commission has accepted merger of private telecom companies up to 35% of market share by both merging companies. There is still proposal to increase it up to 60%.

BSNL will naturally suffer. More than that the people will suffer if this crucial sector is controlled by the cartels being formed. The trade unions and political parties also have to take up the issue with the government.