According to United Nations, the world population has crossed 7 billion ( 700 crores ) by 1st November 2011. While China stands first, India is in the second position. It is estimated that by 2035, the population is China may stabilise. But the population is increasing more in India and it is observed that India may out pass China by 2035.
Increase in population is not a crime. The nation should be able to provide basic requirements to all the people. Population control will naturally come when there is maximum literacy, jobs are ensured and there is an understanding on the subject. It can not be imposed as was tried at the time of the “Emergency” during 1975-77.

According to media reports one more petrol price hike is in the agenda of the petrol companies. On the plea that the value of the rupee has been devalued, the oil companies are planning to hike by Rs. 1.82 This will be the 4th consecutive hike of petrol price in 2011. The last was in September 2011, when the price per litre was hiked by Rs. 3.14.
After deregularisation, the oil companies have been hiking the prices with out any restraint putting the customers in to much difficulties. The government is not taking any action. By the proposed hike petrol price per litre in Delhi will increase from Rs. 66.84 to Rs. 68.66.
There should be strong protest against these unjustified hikes.

To an RTI application, the Department of Pension and Pensioners welfare, Government of India has intimated that there are a total of 8,20,578 pensioners in central services with out taking in to consideration the number of pensioners in Railways, Defence, Posts and Telecom / BSNL
This is the age wise numbers
1. up to 60 years 2,32,541
2. 60 – 70 3,32,021
3. 70 – 80 1,70,479
4. 80 – 85 40,812
5. 85 – 90 27,552
6. 90 – 95 11,403
7. 95 – 100 4,095
8. 100 and above 1,675
Total 8,20,578
This is almost equal to the working employees. This may almost be applicable to pensioners of Railways, Defence and Posts and Telecom (including BSNL). Another interesting factor is that there are 1,675 pensioners who have crossed 100 years. Congratulations!
But tomorrow, the pensioners may be more than the regular workers since there is almost no recruitment.

31st October is a day of big victory for Palestine and utter defeat for US policy. Palestine has been admitted to UNESCO with 107 countries support. 14 countries opposed and 52 absented from voting due US pressure. The US has been continuously opposing entry of Palestine in all United Nations Forums, including the UN General Assembly, by threatening to cut its funding. After it was decided to admit the Palestine to the UNESCO, us declared that its $ 60 million funding to UNESCO will be stopped. So far due to US veto, Palestine could not be admitted to the UN General Assembly, though huge majority are in support of admission. But there is no veto Power to stop entry to Unesco.
US has been taking an unjustified rigid position regarding admission of Palestine due to its close connection with Israel, who is the agressor and has been continuously attacking Palestine and its people. The present decision, if it will pave for the acceptance of Palestine by UNO, will be only a justice to the palestine people.

Government on the one side is asking BSNL to provide landline/mobile services in the remote and village areas as per its commitment to universal service. But on the other side it is not prepared to subsidise BSNL for the huge loss being caused by providing service in these loss making areas.( Private companies are not providing any service in local areas, because of the loss.)
But the DOT/Government is not prepared to give sufficient subsidies / fund to compensate BSNL. This is completely unfair and injustice.
BSNL has claimed about Rs. 4,000 crore towards this as per reports. But the government is yet to take a favourable decision. Government should stop this anti-PSU line and give the required subsidy with out any delay.

The JAC meeting held today, 31st October 2011 has decided to organise the deferred 0ne day strike by BSNL Employees to December to forge wider unity, for full preparation and effective implementation. Massive propaganda and campaign to be unleashed in support of the strike.

To a reply for an RTI request, the CPWD has informed that unauthorised occupants owe an amount of Rs. 63 lakhs to government. The occupiers are not ordinary people. They are either former M.P.s or top politicians or relations of them. Some of the occupiers and their dues are given below:
G.Venkataswamy, former Congress M.P. Rs. 29.4 lakh
Jagdish Tytler , former Congress Minister Rs. 19.1 lakh
Sangita Kumari Singdeo, former BJP MP Rs. 7.39 lakh
Jagan Mohan Reddy, Congress MP Rs. 3.00 lakh
A lot of former M.P.s of both Congress and BJP are the unauthorised occupants and they don’t pay the rent also.
This is the ethics and accountability of some of our Parliament Members from the ruling and main opposition parties.

Guruvayoor Sri Krishna Temple, in Kerala, is one of the famous temples in the whole country. It is visited by thousands of people every day. All Hindus, irrespective of caste, are allowed entry. But this was not the case earlier. Only caste Hindus were allowed entry.
On 1st November 1931, Comrade A.K.Gopalan, veteran communist leader and later the opposition leader in the first Parliament, led a jatha to the temple and sat on hunger satyagraha for days together demanding entry of the temple to all castes of Hindu religion. He was attacked and severely beaten up by the high caste Hindus, but he continued his satyagraha. The satyagraha had great impact.The Kochin Raja and the temple authorities were compelled to open the temple to all Hindus as a result of the agitation.
The agitation was supported by Mahatma Gandhi and leaders of the Independence movement.

Recently, there is a calculated move on the part of the UPA government and top politicians in power to discredit the RTI and the RTI activists. This is only natural since the government has been put on tender hooks several times in the recent past due to the information acquired by individuals and NGOs which exposed some ministers and bureaucrats. One instance is the release of the letter written by the Finance Secretary regarding the involvement of the former Finance Minister P.Chidambaram in approving the 2G auctions.
It was very unfortunate that the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh himself, in the Conference of Information Commissioners on 13th October 2011, almost attacked the RTI and its utilisation by the activists and NGOs. He stated that the RTI Act required a critical look in view of the undesirable situation of public authorities flooded with vexatious demands for information having no bearing on public interest. He also felt that they adversely affected the process of the government.
In fact, this is an open threat that the government is going to make some amendments in the RTI Act 2005. The Government brought the Act with much fanfare and got the credit. The Act was well appreciated by the people also. Now the government feels that the people should not have the right to know how the government is functioning. This attitude of the Government is completely wrong and dangerous.
But somehow, the strong protest from various sections and the media compelled the Government to declare that no amendment is going to be made to the RTI Act. So far, so good. But let us be careful.
The need of the hour is to pressurise the government to ensure that the provisions of the RTI are effectively implemented. Anything less than that will be strongly opposed by the people as an infringement on their right to information,

The National Manufacturing Policy announced by the Government of India on 25th October 2011 is nothing but an anti-people, anti-worker policy intended to give the employers unbridled freedom to violate all labour laws in the country and to give the corporate and big business the opportunity to grab thousands of acres of valuable land at throwaway prices.
Announcing the National Manufacturing Policy (NMP), Shri Anand Sharma, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textile claimed that the NMP aims at increasing the share of the manufacturing to 25% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2022, which at present is only 16%. He also claimed that 100 million additional jobs also will be created. The main point in the NMP is to create a few National Manufacturing and Investment Zones (NMIZs), the minimum area of each which will be 5000 hectares. The first such NMIZ will be in the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC). The Minister said that no cultivable agricultural and forest land will allow to be acquired for NMIZs. He also stated that the issues and concerns raised by the Environment and Labour Ministries against the policy have been attended to.
It is an agreed fact the policy itself has emanated from the failure of the government with regard to formation of the Special Economic Zones(SEZ). Huge outcry and agitation sparked off in connection with the acquisition of land in many states by the farmers and land owners, who were forced by the government to vacate their cultivable land. The tribals were forced to flee from their homes in the forest areas acquired. The compensation given was minimal. Such large scale acquisition violated the environment rules. The labour laws were completely flouted by the managements in the SEZs. No tangible growth was seen except that the corporate and managements were able to grab land at abysmally low rates. The people lost their land.
The NMP has given full freedom to the management to hire and fire. The Labour Department will not be able to intervene in the labour issues in the NIMZs. The managements will employ mainly contract workers in place of regular employees to cut down wages and to deny labour rights. The Government is assuring that the labour rights will be protected, but what will happen is very clear from the experience of the SEZs earlier.
The claim of the government that the GDP in the manufacturing sector will increase by 9% and that 100 million additional jobs will be created by the NMP in a decade is nothing but bluff. In order to reduce the opposition from the people and the working class, such false claims are made.
No central trade union has been consulted while forming the policy, though they are important stake holders. In fact, leaders of all the Central trade union s, including INTUC, have severely criticised the the New Manufacturing Policy for its anti-labour stand. Mighty protest actions can be expected by the working class against this anti-people, anti-worker policy. The government should not proceed with this anti-people policy which of course is part of the neo-liberalisation policy.