As per the decision of the Joint Action committee meeting held on 29th March 2011, the sub-committee formed for preparing the strategy and plans for revival of BSNL will meet at 1130 hours today. The committee consists of V.A.N.Namboodiri, P.Abhimanyu, G.L.Jogi and Prahlad Rai.

In the present circumstances the urgent requirement is to improve the financial viability of the company as also provide better service to the customers. The meeting is expected to discuss and recommend to the JAC what actions are to be taken in the matter.

The Committee may also meet the CMD and Director (HRD) to day to present its view to the management.

Since Kapil Sibal has taken over charge as the Communications Minister, much of his time is being spent for bailing out and saving the private telecom companies out of the several problems risen in connection with the 2G scam. Immediately after taking over, he stated that there is ‘zero loss’ in the 2G spectrum allotment, while all the evidences including the report of the CAG has pointed out at a loss of Rs.1.76 lakh crore to the exchecquer.

The latest is his effort to ensure sufficient loans to the private companies from the banks. After the scam and the enquiries being conducted by the CBI, ED, PAC etc., the banks have taken a strong position on giving loans to these tainted telecom companies. Now the Communications Minister has met Prime Minister to take necessary measures to compel the banks to give loan to these private telcos. He is pressuring the Finance Minister also.

But what about the help to BSNL and MTNL, the government-owned public sector companies? Minister is silent. While he has met the big business and telco bosses several times, he did not have the time to meet and discuss with the staff unions on the important issues of the BSNL and its workers.

The list of corporate czars being summoned by the ED and CBI have been increasing one after another to give evidence in the 2G scam. Now it is the turn of the Public Accounts Committee to summon them. The PAC headed by Murli Manohar Joshi has now asked a list of high-profile business bosses to appear before the PAC. They include Ratan Tata, Anil Ambani, Vinod Goenka of DB Reality, S Tel Promoter C.Sivasankaran and Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra among others.

Niira Radia, the corporate lobbyist and head of the Vaishnavi Corporation has also been summoned in connection with the 2G scam which has resulted in 1.76 lakh crore loss to the Government.

In the meantime, CBI is reported to have intimated the Supreme Court they will issue charge sheet to former minister A.Raja and others shortly.

The question is whether the inquiry will result in conviction or will drag for years and vanish in the thin air like that of Boffors case? When high and mighty people are involved, what happens is known to all. Let us wait and see.

After getting the registration, All India BSNL-DOT Pensioners Association (AIBDPA)has released the first copy of the ‘Tele Pensioner’ on 28th March 2011. It includes the Pension Revision order issued recently and other important documents and articles.

The subscription for three years is Rs.100/- Single copy Rs. 10/-

The Joint action Committee of the BSNL Employees Unions & Associations is meeting today, 29th March 2011, to discuss about the recommendations of the BRPSEs with regard to VRS, reduction in retirement age etc and to plan out agitational programmes against the same.

The JAC will also plan the “Save BSNL” campaign to ensure its financial viability and the strategy to improve its services to the public.

More than 2 lakh workers marched through the streets of London, the capital city of U.K., protesting against the cuts in spending which is drastically resulting in huge job cuts. This is stated to be the biggest demonstration by workers in the recent past in Britain.

The Trade Union Congress, which organised the massive march warned the government of more agitations, if the government continued with the cuts.

It is reported that the BSNL has demanded additional Rs. 4,000 crore for installing the optical fibre network for the Defence, which is the pre-requirement for release of the additional spectrum by the Defence Services to the DOT. The project cost was calculated at Rs.9,175 crore earlier, but after Defence wanted superior quality optical fibre cable as also increase in warranty years, the cost will be more by Rs, 4,000 crores.

This project will help BSNL in the present circumstances if and when the order is given for it to execute.

A long aspiration of the Orissa people are now fulfilled. The Parliament on 24th March 2011 unanimously adopted the constitutional amendment bill, Orissa (the Alternation of Name) Bill changing the name of Orissa to Odisha and Oriya language to Odiya. Once the President approves, the name will be changed officially.

My congratulation to the Odisha people in their victory in getting the name changed.

Since 1990s, the Government has announced two New Telecom Policies, 1) New Telecom Policy 1994 and 2) New Telecom Policy 1999. Kapil Sibal, Communications Minister has announced a few weeks back that a third New Telecom Policy 2011 will be announced. What are the earlier NTPs and what is going to be the NTP 2011?

The New Telecom Policy 1994 (NTP 1994) was mainly intended to open the basic services to the private operators. This was after the licence for providing mobile services were granted to the private telecom companies in the four metros, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai for a meagre Licence Fee. For the first year, there was no licence fee, for the second year it was from Rs. one crore to three crore, for the second year Rs.two to six crore and the third year Rs. four to 12 crore. From the fourth year it was Rs. 6203 per subscribe per month till the 10th year of licence. The licence were allotted from 1994.

The New Telecom Policy 1999 (NTP 1999) brought by the NDA government brought new licence policies and also opened up the long distance ( STD & ISD) services to the private sector. The scams and irregularities during the NDA as well as UPA regimes are being exposed one after another now. In fact there was no open polciy. Every thing was being done to help the private companies at the same time for getting kick-backs also. The politicians, the bureacrats and the big business are all parties to these scams and cheating the nation.

Now Communications Minister Kapil Sibal has declared that a New Telecom Policy 2011 will be announced. There is not going to be much difference from the earlier ones if the many statements of Kail Sibal are gone through. It will be based only on the neo-liberal policies being continued with zeal by the Government.

What the common people and the workers want is an alternative policy which will help the nation and will benefit the people at large. The BSNL workers and their unions have the responsibility to prepare such an alternative policy and campaign for the same.

After continued demand by the unions and acceptance by the EPFO and later much grudgingly by the Finance Ministry, orders were issued for payment of 9.5% interest on EPF for the year 2011-12 by the Government. Now the private employers are refusing to pay 9.5% stating that they are not able to pay the higher %. While Indian Companies have been making huge profits every year and increasing the salary of top executives, they want to deny even this reasonable interest rate on EPF of the employees. This is not at all acceptable. The Government has to take stringent action to ensure that the 9.5% interest on EPF are paid to the employees.