Homage to the Brave Heart – Let us make the country safe for women.

31 Monday Dec 2012

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The people of this great Nation is in mourning. The young girl who was raped and brutalised in the Delhi Bus and battling for life for the last two weeks has died in the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore yesterday and cremated near her house in Delhi. The entire country is mourning for this braveheart who fought against the brutal attack and continued her fight for life till the last.
Thousands of young boys and girls, students, citizens and people from all walks of life are still gathering at the Jantar Mantar and other places in Delhi and keep the candles glow in memory of the young girl, who wanted to live and live a full life.

It is not only in Delhi, but all over the nation, the people are mourning and expressing their protest against the brutal attack. They are demanding quick justice to the victims of sexual assaults that are happening in thousands. It is reported that in every forty minutes a rape is committed in India.

The anger and protest are completely justified. India is a democratic nation, which glorifies the women and even worship them. The epics and literature in each and every language glorify the mother and women. But on the other side the attacks on women, rape, molestation etc. are on the increase day by day. As per certain statistics released there are thousands of rape and molestation cases registered, but not even 30% of them have been finalised or the culprits punished.
The charge-sheeting, trial and the legal proceedings take years and in most of the cases the culprits are let off scot-free due to want of evidence or the witnesses turning hostile due to pressure, threat, bribe etc. There is an unholy alliance between the police and the culprits in many such cases. The police are reluctant even to register FIR. The victims are pressurised to compromise with the culprits.
The legal system has to change and action has to be taken on a fast track. There should be zero tolerance in rape, molestations etc. Safety shuld be ensured for women at all places.
Whether in the work-place,public spaces, transports and in all places, there should be safety for women and girl child. The society has to change its mindset. Treating the women as a sex smybol has to be stopped. Due respect should be given to the women in the movies, adverstisements etc. instead of the present sex-exploitation. There should be sufficient women police and they should be employed more and more in public spaces to ensure safety to women.The governnment has to bring legislation for harsh punishments for sex crimes.
The death of the brave girl can not go in vain. The sacrifice of the young girl should enflame the country to such an extent that such horrible crimes should not happen again.
The students and young people have shown their anguish, protest and determination to fight against such evils in the society. It is a massive movement for a change and all the people have to join this struggle to ensure that there is a change in the mindset of the people, harsh punsihemnt to the culprits, a sensitive police system and fast track justice.
Politicians, legal luminaries, progressive thinkers, administrators, activists, women organisations – everybody in one voice have demanded these. The Central and state governments have to move and decide and implement these reforms immediately.
My Homage to the Brave Heart once again! Let her fight and sacrifice be a bacon light for the the present and future generations for a new world of equal right and equal opportunites for men and women and also for the safety of women.

Casual / Contract workers conference at Amritsar

28 Friday Dec 2012

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The Annual Conference of the BSNL Casual and Contract Workers Federation (BSNLCCWF), Punjab Circle will be held at Amritsar on 29th December 2012. Com.V.A.N.Namboodiri, President BSNLEU and BSNLCCWF, Com. Balbir Singh, Circle Secretary, BSNLEU and other leaders will attend and address. All arrangements are being made by Com. Sarbjit Singh,District Secretary, BSNLEU Amritsar and his team for the holding of the conference in a good way.

Complete the rape trails within 2 months – Supreme Court

27 Thursday Dec 2012

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New Delhi, Dec 27 : Rape trials must end within two months as stipulated under law, the Supreme Court has said directing trial courts to “strictly adhere” to existing norms while asking them to rule out the possibility of “manoeuvring” through undue long adjournments.
A bench of justices Swatanter Kumar and Fakkir Mohammed Ibrahim Kalifulla gave their judgement on December 6, 10 days before the Delhi gangrape which triggered nation-wide outrage with strong demands for fast-tracking of rape cases.
The apex court’s verdict came while dismissing the appeal of a man convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the offences of murder and robbery.
The convict, Akil, along with two others in October 1998 while robbing a woman of her cash and jewellery at gunpoint inside her home at Maujpur here had shot her friend when he had objected to the accused’s attempt to molest her.
“We issue directions in light of the provisions contained in section 231 (evidence for prosecution) read along with section 309 (power to postpone or adjourn proceedings) of CrPC for the trial court to strictly adhere to the procedure prescribed therein in order to ensure speedy trial of cases.
“And also rule out the possibility of any manoeuvring taking place by granting undue long adjournments for mere asking,” the bench said in its 37-page judgement.
Section 309 of the CrPC provides that in every inquiry or trial the proceedings should be held as expeditiously as possible and once the examination of witnesses begins the same shall be continued on a day-to-day basis till all the witnesses are examined.
The apex court also noted that in cases that come under section 376 (rape) and related offences under sections 376 A to D of the IPC, the CrPC stipulates that “the inquiry or trial shall, as far as possible, be completed within a period of two months from the date of commencement of the examination of witnesses.”
(Courtsey: Ganashakti)

DOT moves for VRS to 1 lakh BSNL employees – A Press Report

27 Thursday Dec 2012

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I am reproducing below a report on the proposal of the DOT to initiate VRS in BSNL. Our view points are very clear. We are completely against VRS and the points raised in the report have already been answered by the union several times. The report is given to show that we have to be prepared for sustained struggles in the matter::The news report is given below:

Press Report
Government of India seems to have made up its mind on cutting the number of employees in state-owned BSNL by a third, or 1 lakh, in an effort to turn around the loss-ridden company.

Responding to a question about how BSNL and MTNL can “manage their affairs with such a huge reduction of staff”, the Department of Telecom said they will be able to cope with the situation by adjusting their “business processes” and increased use of information technology.

“Both PSUs will be able to manage with reduced staff by way of greater utilization of Information Technology and re-engineering of business processes in tune with the current business environment,” junior telecom minister Milind Deora said.

The company’s losses have increased by about 30% in the last financial year to Rs 8,851 crore, largely on account of the unsustainably high number of employees. BSNL has a total revenue of about Rs 28,000 crore.

For example, its biggest competitor Bharti Airtel, which has a revenue of about Rs 72,000 crore, has only about 22,000 employees (some of whom may be part of its operations outside India). However, it may be noted that Bharti is not involved heavily in labor-intensive land-line operations and has outsourced the management of IT, towers and radio networks to IBM, Indus towers and telecom equipment makers like Nokia Siemens Networks.

However, even including employees that are possibly employed by these companies for Bharti, the total tally is likely to be only about 50,000-70,000, or about one-fourth to one-fifth of BSNL’s.

Even after the voluntary retirement scheme is implemented, BSNL will still have an unusually large employee base of about 2 lakh. However, as a large section of BSNL’s employees are in the 40-50 age bracket, unlike private companies’, the number of employees are likely to decrease by natural retirement as well.

Asked if BSNL has been continuing to recruit employees despite being overstaffed, Deora said the recruitment was required to meet its operational requirements.

“During the last five years, BSNL has recruited 48 Deputy General Managers (DGMs), 628 Junior Accounts Officers (JAOs), 4171 Junior Telecom Officers (JTOs) and 7213 Telecom Technical Assistant (TTAs). The appointments are not in excess of BSNL’s requirement,” he said.

MTNL hired 235 executives during the last five years.

BSNL is also in the process of ‘repatriating’ hundreds of Indian Telecom Officers (ITOs) back to the DoT.

What is the salary of a CEO or Director of a company?

27 Thursday Dec 2012

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Managements of companies always complain about the total amount of salary being paid to their employees. BSNL Management is also on the same line. But what are the facts?
The CEOs and Directors of companies are being paid very high salaries, even to more than 5% of the total revenue of the company to the CEO and similar to directors also. According to the rules there is a cap of 5% which is also violated. At last the government wants to know how much the CEOs and Directors are given in comparison with the median wage the employees are getting. As such the companies will now be asked to report about the comparison of the wages of the top executives and the other employees.
The BSNL Management should also declare what is total salary bill, the perquisites and also other monetary benefits that is being paid to the CMD and the Directors

RCF – One more PSU in the disinvestment line

27 Thursday Dec 2012

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The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) have approved the disinvestment of Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) in its meeting yesterday. 12.5% shares will be disinvested reducing the present government holding from 92.5% to 80%. The government is planning to sell 6.89 crore shares of Rs. 10.00 each.
RCF is profit making mini-ratna company with more than Rs. 82.88 crore revenue in the last quarter. After the win in the FDI voting in the Parliament, the government has once again started aggressive disinvestment process.

BSNL floats new tender for 63 million mobile equipments

27 Thursday Dec 2012

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It is reported tht BSNL has floated a tender for 63 million mobile lines for further expansion. After the continuous pressure from the Joint Forum and consequent agitation, a tender was floated for 14.37 million lines, but the West Zone supply was not made since the ITI, which was given the tender as per the reservation quota did not accept the same. Now including that missed supply, the tender is floated

The immediate funeral expense of Rs.15,000 not to be recovered.

26 Wednesday Dec 2012

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Yesterday I was informed that Ahmadabad and Nagpur units of WTR has recovered the amount paid as immediate funeral expenses to the families of the deceased employees has been recovered when the claims of the deceased employees were settled. This is completely wrong and a violation of the rules on the subject. The immediate funeral expense payment is to be made immediately from any available funds and need not be recovered.
It was as demanded by the union in the Welfare Committee that the decision was taken and the amount was increased later to Rs. 15,000 again on demand of the union. This amount is not to be recovered at all. We hope that once this mistake was pointed out the recovered amount will be paid back to the family of the deceased. In case, similar incident has happened in other places also, the union should take up and settle the issue immediately.

New Recognition Rules for BSNL Non-Executive Unions issued

26 Wednesday Dec 2012

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BSNL Management has today issued the ‘BSNL RECOGNITION OF NON-EXECUTIVES’ UNIONS AND REPRESENTATION IN THE COUNCIL RULES’. This is in continuation of the discussions held between the Management and the Unions. Till now only the union which got the maximum number of votes in the Membership Verification under Secret Ballot was granted recognition and allotted seats in the National/Circle/District Councils. In all the four membership verifications after the first, BSNLEU won continuously and was the only recognised union. In the last verification, it got more than 52% of the polled votes.
It is to the credit of BSNLEU that it on its own took up with the CLC and the BSNL Management for grant of recognition and representation on the basis of proportionate representation and the Management has issued the new orders. Of course, BSNLEU’s seats in the council will be reduced, but it is one union which wants that the principle of proportionate representation is implemented.
We are happy that though the Management has not accepted all our suggestions, this is better than the earlier rules which may bring more unity amongst the workers.
With about 1,20,000 paid members out of about 2,10,000 total employees, BSNLEU will again get more than 50% of the votes like last time and will be the number one union.

Com.Umesh Yadav met tragic death -Our Heartfelt condolences!

26 Wednesday Dec 2012

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With much sorrow we intimate the shocking and tragic news of the accident death of Com. Umesh Yadav, an office-bearer of of BSNLCCWF, Jabalpur, which happened yesterday, 25th December. He was attending cable duty when a telephone post fell upon him due to the working of a JCB operating nearby. He was taken to the hospital, but was declared dead. FIR has been filed against BSNL Management, Contractor of the JCB etc. for the accident and death of the worker. After postmortem the body was created in his home village, Satna. Com.S.R.Nayak, Circle Secretary, BSNLEU and other leaders of BSNLEU and BSNLCCWF were present and did whatever could be done immediately in this connection. Com. Umesh Yadav is survived by his parents, wife and two children.
We condemn the BSNL Management and also the Municipality/Contractor for the utter negligence in the security and safety of the worker who was performing his duty to restore the cable-fault in the interest of service.
We express our heartfelt sorrow and convey our condolence to the bereaved family, friends and comrades. We demand the BSNL Management to immediately take all necessary action for finanacial support to the bereaved family and other necessary welfare measures.