Today all the newspapers are full of news of Russian Election. The ‘invincible’ Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party has suffered a serious set back in the elections. The Party which got 64% in the last elections four years ago was down with only 49.54% votes. This is an adverse comment on the functioning of the government.

Opposition parties have improved, especially the Communist Party (CPRF) which increased its vote from 12% to 19%. It indicates a turn for the better for the Communist Party. All the opposition parties have criticised the government for irregularities and lack of fairness.” It is the dirtiest election ever” said Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov.

A wind of change is sweeping Russia, that is sure.

The BSNL management including CMD are continuously making statements that the BSNL is in loss because of the high cost due to salary of the employees, coming to about 46% of the total revenue.  It is not only BSNL, but even many of the IT companies are having a wage bill going above 40%. For example, the wage bill of Tata Consultancy is 40%, Infosys 55%, Wipro 35%, Tech. Mahindra 55% and Polaris 64%. It is almost the same with other companies also. In SAIL, it is above 40%. These companies are all making profit. Hence it is not the wages of the employees that is the cause for the loss. In BSNL itself when there were about 3.5 lakh workers, it was getting a profit of Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 10,000 crore.  So, the loss is due to something else.

The main reason for the loss is due to the decrease in revenue. The revenue has come down from Rs. 40,000 crore to Rs,. 29,687 crore now in 201o-11. It is due to the anti-PSU policy of the government and the utter inefficiency of the top management that  the revenue has gone down. If the revenue has been stable or increased, the % of salary would have been far lower. The Government and the management is entirely responsible for the same. If the mobile lines tender for 45 million in 2007 and 93 million in 2010 have not been cancelled this sorry situation would not have come.

And again, when the management says that the high wage bill of employees is responsible for the loss, the people will think that the lakhs of workers are getting very high wages. But  the facts are different. On an analysis of the wage bill of  one circle (T.Nadu), the real nature of the wage bill has come out. Out of an estimated   wage bill of T.Nadu for 2011-12,  the Group A (ITS only)numbering 44  (0.21% of the total staff) are  paid 3.66% of total wage bill. Total Group A 1 Officers (Including ITS) of 1062 are taking 58% of the total wage bill. Total executives numbering  4123 takes 73.94 % of the salary. And total non-executives numbering 16,898 gets only 26.06 % of the total salary!

The group A ( including the CMD and Directors)  who are only 5% of the staff  is taking  55 % of the wage bill and is criticising the non-executive employees who are  80% in number but getting only 26% of the total wages.  This is without taking in  to consideration the various perks and allowances given, which are maximum to the Group A.

Not only the top-level management has brought down BSNL to the present condition and at the same time is taking maximum remuneration and benefit out of the company and criticising the other employees. This duplicity of the management has got to be exposed.

The Government is cutting subsidies to the common people. Number of BPL families are being reduced on one plea or another and the food subsidy is also being cut. The government is very reluctant to grant subsidy for bail out of PSUs like Air India. It says that PSUs should manage their own without seeking help from Government. BSNL is deprived of its cash surplus through dubious means like ‘notional loans’ etc.

But the same government has no difficulty in gifting lakhs of crores of rupees as subsidy to the corporates and private bigwigs. See below how much amount has been spent by the government towards concession and bailing out the corporates:

Year                            Amount

2008-2009              Rs. 4,14,099 crore

2009-2010              Rs. 5,02,299 crore

2010-2011                Rs. 5,11,630 crore

Total                          Rs 14,28,028 crore.

A total of Rs 14,28,028 crore gifted to the corporates! One can understand on whose side the government is!

The government doesn’t miss  a chance to publicise its love towards the farmers and its programmes to help them. But what is happening in the country? Crores of farmers are languishing under debts and loans unable to repay them. They are unable to buy seeds for cultivation. They are in utter poverty.  The government should open its eyes and see the misery of the farmers. The following list of suicides of farmers show the utter callousness of the government towards their problems: Only the number of suicides in 4 states are given.

Farmer Suicides  in 16 years  from 1995 – 2010

Maharashtra       30,415

A.P.                       31,120

Karnataka           35,053

M.P.                     41,062

Total                  2,56,913

It is reported that President Putin’s party United Russia Party has scrapped through with a lean margin. But what is important is that the Communist Party (CPRF) has improved its votes and had advanced much. The people have started comparing the present economic situation with the earlier USSR when Communist Party was in power.

Let us hope that the pendulum is swinging towards Communism, especially after the great recession and job loss in the capitalist countries.

The Steering Committee against PFRDA Bill has submitted the Memorandum against PFRDA BIll directly to the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on the day of the massive Parliament March on 25th November 2011. Memorandum signed by thousands of workers have already been submitted. But it is understood that many circles/districts are yet to send the signed copies to the CHQ.It is very much necessary that all these copies of memorandums be sent to the CHQ so that it can be sent to the PM through the Steering Committee.

The Steering Committee is scheduled to meet on 20th December to review the earlier programmes and to chalk out further programmes. Due to the stalling of the Parliament, the issue is yet to be discussed. Our pressure should be intensified.

As per the call of the JAC, massive rallies are to be organised on 8th December in preparation and propagation of the One Day Strike on 15th December 2011.  The main demands include ‘No VRS’, ITS absorption issue, Bonus, procurement of equipments etc.etc.

Management has not so far even called the JAC for discussion in the matter. Let us organise the rally on 8th in a massive way.

I am at Chennai today, 3rd December 2011, attending the Circle Executive Committee of BSNLEU T.Nadu Circle. When I spoke, I mainly dwelt upon the decision of the Central Trade Unions calling the workers to go on strike on 28th February 2012 on the major demands of the Indian working class. I also touched upon the 15th December one-day strike decided by the JAC.

Comrade P.Abhimanyu, GS, S.Chellappa, Circle Secretary T.Nadu Circle, Punitha Udaya Kumar, All india Vice-President. K.Govindaraj, Circle Secretary, C.K.Narasimhan, Circle Secretary, AIBDPA, Murugaiah, Circle Secretary, BSNLCCWF  and other leaders were there.

T.Nadu Circle Union is a circle union functioning systematically, holding regular CEC meetings, issuing circulars, taking up cases with the management etc. Its website is daily updated with latest information.

I could not stay till the end of the CEC since I had to urgently return to Delhi. My Greetings to the T.Nadu comrades.

Inordinate delay has occurred in the waiver of the spectrum by the Defence which can be used for providing services to the people. It was agreed between the Departments of Defence and Telecommunications that a portion of the spectrum now with the Defence will be transferred to DOT after creating a net work for the Defence by DOT which is entrusted to the BSNL. Is it not over so far?

Is it the fault of the DOT, Defence or BSNL? Any way delay has taken place. Unless things move fast there will be further delay in transfer. this is to be avoided.

There are about 47.1 million subscribers to EPF with a corpus of more than Rs. 3.5 lakh crore. Now there is no fixed minimum pension for the subscribers  to the EPF.There are pensioners getting even Rs.20 only per month. About 7 lakh workers are only getting about Rs. 1,000. In contrast, many states are paying minimum pension @ Rs. 500 to Rs.1000, without any contribution from the senior citizen.

The Central trade unions have been demanding a minimum of Rs. 2,000 as pension to the EPF contributors. Although consensus have been reached at Rs.1000 as minimum pension between the employer and the employees representatives, no decision has been taken so far. It is reported that the Central Board of Trustees  of the EPFO, in its meeting to be held on 23rd December is expected to take a decision in this matter.

It is only appropriate and need-based to fix a minimum of Rs. 2000 at least as the minimum pension. This is what the government has to do for justice to the pensioners.