After eight farmer suicides in two months, Kerala government has declared major relief for farmers across the state, particularly for the flood-affected farmers in Idukki and Wayanad.

Moratorium on loan recovery proceedings has been extended till December 31 and Kerala State Debt Relief Commission has been asked to consider debt relief for Wayanad and Idukki farmers who had taken loans till August 31, 2018, the month the deluge devastated agricultural lands. Eight of the seven dead in the last two months were farmers from Idukki.

The one-year moratorium on farmers’ loans announced in the wake of the August floods has been extended till December 31. “This is not for agricultural loans alone but for all kinds of loans taken by farmers,” chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said during his post-cabinet briefing in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.

The guidelines of the State Debt Relief Commission, formed in 2006 after a spate of farmer suicides across Kerala, has been dramatically relaxed. Besides providing major succour to Idukki and Wayanad farmers, farmers in other districts, too, will stand to gain. As per the existing guidelines, except for Wayanad, the commission’s cut-off date for considering debt relief was loans taken till October 31, 2011. For Wayanad district alone, it was March 31, 2014. Now, March 31, 2014, is the new limit the commission has been asked to set for all districts, except Wayanad and Idukki for which the new limit is August 31, 2018. “This means that the commission can provide relief to farmers in Wayanad and Idukki who had taken loans just before the floods,” a senior commission official said.

The commission has also been asked to be more generous. As it stands, the commission will pay 75 per cent of the repayment amount if it is Rs 50,000 or less. Anything above Rs 50,000, the commission will pay only 50 per cent subject to a maximum of Rs 1 lakh. The chief minister said the upper limit has now been pushed up to Rs 2 lakh.

This is not all. Up to nine per cent of the interest for the new loans taken for long-term crops like coffee, rubber and coconut will be provided from the chief minister’s relief fund. This benefit will be provided for one year from the time of taking the loan. The compensation for crop loss, too, has been upped 100 per cent from the levels fixed in 2015. For instance, the compensation for arecanut has been increased to Rs 300 from Rs 150, for cocoa and coffee it will be 200 from Rs 100, for pepper it would be Rs 150 from Rs 75 and for cloves it would be Rs 200 from Rs 100. The compensation for cardamom will now be Rs 25,000 from Rs 18,000 a hectare. The chief minister said Rs 85 crore would be urgently sanctioned for crop losses.

The chief minister said the new relief measures would be besides the special package announced for Wayanad and Idukki districts and also for Kuttanad area.(Courtesy: Ganashakti)

The salary for the month of February, 2019, is not yet paid. BSNL Management says, “We have no money”. To tackle the problem, BSNL needs to take bank loan. But, the DoT refuses to allow BSNL to take bank loans, for meeting operational expenses, ie., for payment of salary, etc. Compared to private companies, BSNL’s debt is very small. Then, why the DoT is not allowing BSNL to avail bank loans? why the BSNL employees are being made to suffer, without payment of salary? The game plan of the government is very clear! It is a conspiracy to create panic among employees, to force them to go on VRS. Already, media reports have said that, the BSNL Management and the DoT are seriously considering a VRS proposal, for BSNL employees. So, all conspiracies are being hatched, to force the employees to go on VRS in a large scale. The government wants to reduce the strength of the employees drastically. If less number of employees are there, it will be easier for the government to sell BSNL to some corporates in future. Let us understand the game plan of the government. Let us unitedly fight to defeat the conspiracies of the government. (BSNLEU website)

An emergent meeting of the AUAB will be held at 11:00 am tomorrow, at BSNL MS office. The BSNL Corporate Management and DoT are responsible for the denial of payment of salary to the employees for the month of February, 2019. Despite severe protests from the employees, the Corporate Management has not taken any action so far, to arrange payment of salary to the employees. This indifference cannot be allowed. Further, the BSNL Management has started issuing show-cause notice to the leaders of the Executive Associations, for their role in organising the 3 day strike. The Management has also informed that break-in-service would be imposed for participating in the 3 day strike. The AUAB meeting, being held tomorrow, will discuss all these issues and will take decisions for taking appropriate actions. (BSNLEU website)

1. AIC – a view of the audience 2. Officebearers elected in AIC  3. Advisor, President, General Secretary and Treasurer (Right to Left)

WELCOME WING COMMANDER ABHINANDAN, WHO FOUGHT VALIANTLY FOR INDIA AGAINST THE PAK ATTACK!

The people of Kashmir valley and all shades of political opinion there are highly perturbed by reports of the efforts to do away with Article 35A of the Constitution.

This has come in the context of the petitions being heard in the Supreme Court challenging the Constitutional provision and the fact that the Central Government has not made its position clear on the matter.

Article 35A confers the power to the Jammu & Kashmir state legislature to define who are permanent residents and their rights. Any attempt to tamper with this provision will fundamentally damage the special status accorded to Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution.

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) expresses its strong opposition to the move to interfere with Article 35A. It calls upon the central government to make a public commitment that the Article will be retained intact in the Constitution.

Com. K.G.Jayaraj, General Secretary, AIBDPA addressed in detail the AIC of AIBDPA at Kolkata. It covered all the important points to be discussed in the AIC. The speech was much praised by the house.

It was enthusiasm all along and the 1000 odd delegates marched from Yuvabhart YouthHostel , Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata to the Purbashree Auditorium (Com.Sisir Bhattacharjee Nagar), Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, Salt Lake , raising slogans in different languages, reflecting the diversity in unity. The procession reached the venue at 10 AM and the National Flag was hoisted by Com. Ananta Kr Bhattacharjee, President and AIBDPA flag by Com.K.G.Jayaraj, General Secretary. Thereafter floral tributes were paid to the martyrs under the leadership of Com.V A N Namboodiri, Advisor.

The house assembled fully and good number of delegates were also accommodated in the balcony and still some of the delegates could not make it as it was jam packed. The music party consisting AIBDPA comrades presented melodious welcome song. Then, all the leaders/ guests were felicitated by the Reception Committee. Com.A.K.Bhattacharjee, President presided over the inaugural session. Com.Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya, Chairman, Reception Committee delivered the welcome address giving the significance of Kolkata since the British East India Company era.

Com.A.K Battacharjee in his presidential address recalled the sacrifices made by leaders like Tarapada Mukharjee and K G Bose and the numerous struggles waged against injustice and for the genuine demands of the workers.

Delivering the inaugural address, Com.Hannan Mollah , General Secretary, All India Kisan Sabha minced no words in exposing the anti-farmer and anti-worker policies of Narendra Modi government. He shared the experience had with the great Kisan rally at Nashik , Maharashtra on 21-02-2019 and how the Maharashtra government was compelled to settle the genuine issues in full. The Hindutva philosophy being aggressively pursued by the sangh parivar is supported by the government and all the constitutional institutions are saffronised. He also criticised the anti-PSU policy of Modi government due to which 4 G spectrum is denied to BSNL. He congratulated the BSNL workers for the glorious three days strike .

Com.P.Abhimanyu, General Secretary explained the circumstances under which the AUAB had to go for the three days strike from 18-02-2019 and the workers made the strike glorious by participating boldly ignoring the ESMA invoked by the government. The government move to kill BSNL is being resisted unitedly by the workers and he acknowledged the support and solidarity being extended by AIBDPA. Com.P.Abhimanyu made it clear that regarding pension revision the AUAB demand is for pension revision with 15% fitment and ridiculed the demand of certain pensioners organisations for CPC fitment.

Com.V A N Namboodiri, Advisor in his address reiterated the correct and principled stand of AIBDPA on pension revision which is vindicated by AUAB. Coms.S S Roy, Working President, NCCPA, Animesh Mitra, Secretary General, BSNL CCWF, R N Dhal, AGS, AIPRPA and K G Jayaraj, General Secretary also addressed the inaugural session.

A meeting of the AUAB was held today to review the 3 day strike and also to chalk out the future course of action. General Secretaries / Senior officer bearers of all the constituents of the AUAB participated. The meeting whole heartedly thanked the entire Executives and Non-Executives who made the 3 day strike a historic success. The meeting also congratulated the circle and district level AUAB, for effectively organising the strike. With the view to carry forward the movement further to settle the charter of demands, the following programme of action is finalised.

Conducting March to PMO on 06.03.2019, by mobilising the employees from the surrounding circles.
Memorandum to be submitted to all the MPs, latest by 28.02.2019.
To send messages to the Hon’ble Prime Minister and Hon’ble Minister of State for Communications on Twitter.
Meeting the Hon’ble Minister of State for Communications wherever possible by our comrades. (courtesy: bsnleu website)

CABINET APPROVES RELEASE OF AN ADDITIONAL INSTALMENT OF DA TO CENTRAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES AND DR TO PENSIONERS, DUE FROM 1.1.2019
Posted On: 19 FEB 2019 9:22PM by PIB Delhi

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its approval to the release of an additional instalment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central Government employees, and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners w.e.f. 1.1.2019 representing an increase of 3% over the existing rate of 9% of the Basic Pay/Pension, to compensate for price rise. This increase is in accordance with the accepted formula, which is based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC). The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both DA and DR would be Rs. 9168.12 crore per annum and Rs. 10696.14 crore in the FY 2019-20 (for a period of 14 months from January 2019 to February, 2020).This will benefit about 48.41 lakh Central Government employees and 62.03 lakh pensioners.