Condolence Message by Air Force to those Martyrs who sacrificed their lives to save others

26 Wednesday Jun 2013

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In the proud tradition of the Air Force,  the Brothers in Arms and the IAF family has sent the following condolence message to those  died in the chopper crash while engaged in saving the lives of thousands of people in the Uttarakhand disaster:

” You all have done us proud, for you gave your life in service of your countrymen without discretion of colour, caste, creed or religion – more importantly, in their hour of need. You are now a guiding beacon in our deeds. Your selfless sacrifice in Operation Rahat is monumental and just remembering it would be more than any pilgrimage to us.”

All Indians will be sharing the same condolence to those brave hearts who sacrificed themselves to save others in the hour of need.

CPI(M) demands declaration of ‘National Disaster’

26 Wednesday Jun 2013

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PTI

Kolkata, Jun 25 : The CPI(M) today demanded that the Centre declare the devastation in rain-battered Uttarakhand as a national disaster.                 “Considering the immense loss of life and property in Uttarakhand, particularly in Kedarnath and Chamoli, we demand that the government declare the devastation as a national disaster,” CPI(M) politburo member Biman Bose said in a statement. He also demanded relief and rehabilitation of the lakhs of affected people in the hill state  Stating that with its limited capacity the party would like to offer help to the distressed, he asked all party units in West Bengal to raise funds for the affected.

Rescue IAF Chopper crash in Uttarakhand – 8 killed

25 Tuesday Jun 2013

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I am quoting below a report from Hindu on the crash of an IAF Chopper during the rescue operations in Uttarakhand killing 8 including 5 crew. The military has been doing a very dangerous task in the hills, saving thousands of victims of the nature’s fury. And the above accident once again shows under what difficult situation the life saving operations are going on. My Red Salute to these brave comrades who are the real heroes of our nation! All of us hope that all the survivors are brought to safety at the earliest.

 

An IAF helicopter on Tuesday crashed during rescue operations near Gaurikund in rain-ravaged Uttarakhand, killing eight persons onboard, including five crew members.

“One Mi-17 V5 chopper on a rescue mission from Gauchar to Guptkashi and Kedarnath while returning from Kedarnath crashed north of Gaurikund,” an IAF spokesperson said.

Eight persons onboard, including five crew members, suffered fatal injuries in the mishap, she said in Delhi.

A Court of Inquiry has been ordered to investigate the crash, the spokesperson said.

The IAF said its operations in the area will continue.

IAF had started inducting Mi-17 V5 choppers only in 2012 after 80 of them were ordered from Russia.

This is the second incident of a helicopter crash this week in the hill State.

A private helicopter carrying relief materials for the rain-affected people in Rudraprayag district had crashed on Sunday near Gaurikund leaving the pilot injured.

Air Force officials said eight bodies have been recovered from the crash site by the Garud Commandos of the IAF.

They said the chopper had taken off at 12.30 p.m. from Kedarnath area and crashed within five to seven minutes.

Defence Minister A.K. Antony has expressed anguish over the crash.

A pall of gloom descended at the helipad in Gauchar after reports of the crash reached.

IAF, Army and ITBP officers went into a huddle at a tent erected by the Air Force for controlling its operations.

Senior officials of the agencies involved in the rescue operations also rushed to the helipad.

IAF officers were seen making anxious calls over their cellphones and restricted frequency equipment to finetune the operations and gather details of the crash.

Red Salute to Com. Adinarayana (10-06-1928 – 17-06-2003)

25 Tuesday Jun 2013

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It is 10 years since Comrade K.Adinarayana,  the revolutionary leader of P and T employees and former Secretary General of National Federation of Postal Employees (NFPE) left us forever. He was one of the greatest leader we have seen, who fought for the betterment of the Central Government employees and especially for the neglected Extra- Departmental employees (ED) in P and T. He brought respect to them, organised them and improved their condition.

Himself an ED employee, recruited after years in jail for participating in the historic Telengana struggle even when he was a minor, Com. Adi rose as the secretary General of NFPE and led the workers in the tradition of the Pioneers of the P and T TU movement. He passed away on 17th June 2003 at his home in Hyderabad.

on his 10th death anniversary  a bouquet of red roses and Red Salute to Com. K.Adinarayana!

Meeting with DOT and BSNL Officers

25 Tuesday Jun 2013

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Meeting with Additional Secretary, DOT

Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri, Convener, Forum & Advisor AIBDPA and K.G.Jayaraj, General Secretary, AIBDPA met Smt. Rita Teotia, Additional Secretary, DOT and discussed the issue of orders on 78.2% IDA fixation for the BSNL pensioners retired before 01-01-2007. They urged for issue of early orders. The issue of early payment of Rs. 1,500 crore from USOF was also pointed out for which the  Addl. Secretary assured early action and stated that only the Gazette Notification is further required in the matter.

Meeting with Member (Services) and Member (Finance)

The AIBDPA leaders met Shri S.C.Misra, Member (Services) and Smt. Sadhana Dixit, Member (Finance) and urged for necessary action for issue of necessary orders on the payment of 78.2% IDA fixation  for the pre-2007 pensioners. Copy of the letter addressed to Secretary, DOT in the matter was handed over.

Meeting with Director, Finance (BSNL)

Coms. V.A.N.Namboodiri and K.G.Jayaraj met Sri KGCK Pillai, Director (Finance), BSNL and discussed about the implementation of the orders on the payment of 78.2% IDA pay fixation. Shri R.K.Goyal, GM (Estt.) was also present. The union leaders requested that the method of fixation and connected matters be clearly directed so that there will be no confusion at the field level. Director(F) assured that this will be done.

Meeting with CMD BSNL

Coms. V.A.N.Namboodiri and K.G.Jayaraj, General Secretary AIBDPA met Shri R.K.Upadhyay, CMD BSNL and discussed about the restoration of the services in the flood and landslide ravaged Uttarakhand and HP and offered maximum support from the workers and pensioners. CMD stated that most of the towers and other infrastructure have been restored, but again due to the heavy rain, cables have been destroyed. They are also being restored. He appealed for maximum donations from the staff.

The Association leaders requested for extension of provision of concessional Broad band connections to the DOT retirees. He assured that the issue will be positively considered.

25th June 1975 – The Black Day, Promulgation of ‘Emergency’

25 Tuesday Jun 2013

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Today, we once again remember the Black Day 38 years back, when the ‘Internal emergency’ was declared by the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi on 25th June 1975, to save herself and the Congress Government she led from collapse and constitutional crises.

India never has seen such a period of what happened after emergency. All political opponents, including top leaders of political parties  were arrested, jailed, hunted down and victimised. The working class and their struggles were suppressed. All their genuine rights were denied. Newspapers were censored before each day publication. Many opposition parties’ mouthpieces were banned. Many trade union leaders including from P&T were jailed without any charges. Meetings, processions, every method of protest were prohibited.

It was not Emergency, but it was Draconian Dictatorship. The dark days were over when in the next general elections, the Congress was utterly defeated and the Janata Government came to power.

The people have to be cautious that such violation of democracy never occurs again.

BSNL for Better Service (7)(Continued) – Procurement of Equipment

24 Monday Jun 2013

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On pressure from the staff unions, another tender was floated for 93 million (9.3 crore) GSM lines, but that was also cancelled at the last moment citing some vigilance issues. Next tender for 5 million lines was also cancelled on some other pretext. The Government and management together ensured that the BSNL is completely out of stock of mobile lines. It was a golden period for the private companies to give lakhs and lakhs of connections, without any competition from  BSNL. The market share of BSNL went continuously declining and reached to about 12% in the mobile sector. The private sector reached about 88% of the total mobile lines in the country.

The Forum of BSNL Unions took up the issue with the BSNL management and warned of going in to struggle if the equipment is not procured. It was not only the case of GSM lines. There was acute shortage of cables, Broad-band modem, Drop wire and other equipment required for expansion and regular maintenance of the services. No equipment was purchased for a number of years creating a critical situation.

The continued pressure of the Unions had some result. As per the management, Advance Purchase Orders have been issued  for 22 lakhs clip instruments, a good number of cables, Broadband modems, drop wire etc. But the fact is, that most of the SSAs have still not got the same. The top management should take necessary steps to immediately  get the equipment purchased and distributed or authorise the SSAs to purchase the same.

At present the procurement of equipment is done in an unplanned manner. Because there was much pressure from the Forum and unions, some purchase is made. After this, the situation may again go stagnant.  The Management should have a well-planned strategy to purchase all equipment required for the growth, expansion and maintenance.

Drop-wire is being manufactured by the BSNL Telecom Factories and the production can be increased according to the requirement. As far as towers are concerned, again the factories can manufacture any number of towers. In fact, more than two hundred towers are ready for supply in the TFs, but SSA heads are purchasing the towers from outside citing some small technical problems. These have to be solved and the TF towers should be purchased and utilised. Efforts should be made to manufacture the optical fibre cables in our own factories. Tender for sufficient mobile lines, phone instruments etc. has to be floated. An effort should be made to manufacture Broad-band Modem in the TFs. It is not much difficult. In short, there should not be any shortage of equipment.

The Management should take immediate steps for the procurement, which will go a long way in expansion and a better service to the people.

 

 

 

SBI to recruit 10,000 employees, all Banks 60,000

24 Monday Jun 2013

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It is reported by PTI quoting the SBI Chairman Pratip Chaudhari that the State Bank of India will be recruiting 10,000 employees in 2012-13. He also stated that about 7,500 will be retiring. It means that SBI will get an additional staff of 2,500. SBI Chairman also mentioned that another 20,000 Asst. Grade employees were recruited last year.

The banking sector was in acute shortage of staff due to the VRS implemented earlier. Now all the banks have started recruitment. It is estimated that more than 60,000 employees will be recruited in the PSU Banks this year.

This is a good decision. It is time that BSNL should think about recruitment to induct new blood. This can be done by regularising the casual/contract labour working for many years, appointment on compassionate grounds and also direct recruitment.  It is to be noted that almost 15,000 workers are retiring every year and more than 1,30,000 had already retired since 2000. About 30,000 only has been so far recruited that too mainly in TTA and JTO cadre. Recruitment in other cadres are also necessary.

10 PSUs pay dividend of Rs. 36,441.74 crore in 2012-13

24 Monday Jun 2013

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PSUs are milching cows for the government. BSNL may be in loss for the last four years due to the neo-liberal policies and inefficient management, but there are many other PSUs which are still making good profit. The following 10 PSUs have given a total amount of Rs. 36,441.74 crore dividend to the government in 2012-13. This is more than Rs. 4,507.64 crore paid in 2011-12, which was Rs. 31,934.10 crore.

Coal India      Rs. 8,842.90 crore   Indian Oil Corpn   Rs. 1,505.33 cr.

ONGC            Rs. 8,127.74 crore    BHEL                   Rs. 1,324.15 cr

NTPC             Rs. 4,741.14 crore    GAIL                    Rs. 1,217.74 cr.

NMDC            Rs. 2,775.29 crore     Power Fin. Corpn  Rs.    924.01 cr.

Oil India         Rs. 1,803.42 crore     SAIL                     Rs.    826.11 cr.

Total              Rs. 36,441.74 crore.

Battle of Plassey – The Dawn of British Rule In India

23 Sunday Jun 2013

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The start of almost two centuries of British rule in India can be said to be at the out come of the Battle of Plassey (Palashi near  Calcutta) in 1757, in which the British force under Robert Clive defeated the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daula. The army of Siraj-ud-Daula of more than 50,000 with sufficient artilleries were defeated by the 3,000 forces of British in this battle on 23rd June 1757. The British lured  Mir Jaffar and other captains of  Siraj-ud-Daula with the offer of ruling Bengal  and they kept out of the fight in the last minute and ensured the victory of British. Thus it was through treachery that the British started their rule in India. It was through treachery again that they annexed  the kingdoms one after another.

The British used treachery, bribery and all kinds of heinous crimes to annex kingdoms one after another and fully succeeded in it, bringing almost all parts of the country within its fold. But what is more condemnable was the role played by many who became traitors to their own country like Mir Jaffar. Whether it is the defeat of Pazhassi Raja or that of other kings who fought the British, there were traitors all along to side with the British for small gains. This is a bitter lesson to be learnt from the past.

While it was the British East India Company which started the conquest of India through  more than two and half centuries back, the imperialists led by the US are trying to subjugate the third world countries including India through the international financial institutions of World Bank, WTO and IMF and also through the bilateral military alliances and agreement. Of course, Mir Jaffars and Jayachandras will be there.

India lost its freedom through the attacks and conquests by Alexander, Genghis Khan, Moghuls and others and last by the British. It was through the sacrifices of thousands of people and  sustained struggles that India got Independence on 15th August 1947.

It is the duty of one and all Indians to ensure the freedom of the country and to ensure that the slogans raised at the time of the independence struggle for a better lot to the people  are put in to action and the democratic functioning maintained. And the Mir Jaffars and Jayachandras should be isolated and dealt with.