As per media reports, BSNL has started the process to roll out it’s 4G services, at an outlay of around Rs.11,000 crore.  For this, BSNL has come out with a tender for procuring 50,000 new 4G sites. The last date for the vendors to apply for contract has been fixed as 8th May, 2020. The biddings will be opened on 9th May, 2020.

[ Financial Express dt. 12th April, 2020 ] 

BSNLEU and AIBDPA, Dindigul branch of Madurai district provided provisions worth Rs.35,000/- to 48 contract workers. Com.Vaithialinga Boopathy & Com.Suseela Mary, BSNLEU, Com.B.John Borjia, AIBDPA and Com.Ganapathi, AIIEA, distributed materials to the contract workers.   

BSNLEU and AIBDPA distributed relief materials at Gingee (Cuddalore SSA), Rajapalayam (Virudhunagar SSA) and Thirunelveli SSA of Tamil Nadu circle. Office bearers of BSNLEU, AIBDPA and AIIEA participated in these programme. At Gingee, Com.R. Krishnamurthi, has contributed 15 bags of rice (each 25 kgs.) to the contract workers. 

At a time when the crude oil price is very low in the international market, the prices of petrol and diesel keep on sky-rocketing in India.  In the last 18 days alone, both the price of petrol, and the price of diesel have increased by more than Rs.10/- per litre. 

In January, 2018 the price of diesel at Delhi was Rs.61.74 in Delhi. In one and half years the price has increased by Rs.18/-. Petrol cost Rs.79.76 per litre at Delhi today and diesel cost Rs.79.88 per litre. The one person who is most benefited by the hiking of prices of petrol and diesel, by the Narendra Modi government, is Mukesh Ambani. He is controlling a big share in India's Petro-chemical industry. It may be recollected that recently Mukesh Ambani jumped into the club of 10 richest persons in the world. He is the 9^th richest person in the world now.

The Kerala circle union of BSNLEU, organised state- wide demonstrations yesterday, against the atrocious hiking of prices of petrol and diesel. CHQ congratulates the Kerala circle union.   

It has already been informed that a meeting of the BSNL Working Women’s Co-ordination Committee (BSNL WWCC) will be held at Vadodara on 05.03.2020. Gujarat circle union and the Vadodara district union have informed that the venue of the BSNL WWCC meeting is as follows:-

Hotal Tulsi,

Opp. Rosary School,

Pratapgunj,

Vadodara – 390 002

The meeting will start sharply at 10:30 am. All members of the BSNL WWCC are requested to attend the meeting on time.

BSNLEU and AIBDPA, Pondicherry jointly provided relief to the contract workers at Pondicherry. The office bearers of BSNLEU and AIBDPA disbursed Rs.1,000/- each to the contract workers. Com.A.Subramanian, DS, BSNLEU, Com.R. Selvam, DS, TNTCWU Com.M. Balasubramnian, Treasurer, AIBDPA and Com.N. Kolanjiappan, District President, BSNLEU, disbursed the money.

CHQ thankfully acknowledges that AIBDPA, Kolkata Telephones Circle, has donated Rs.50,000/- to the "Contract Workers Relief Fund". Com.Manisha Biswas, ACS, AIBDPA, handed over the amount to Com.Sisir Kumar Roy, CS, BSNLEU, today.

We have heard about the “Great Wall of China”, built to stop foreigners from invading China. Now, the Great Wall of Gujarat is being constructed in Ahmedabad, to stop Donald Trump, US President, from seeing the slums of Ahmedabad. Below is the reporting of the New Indian Express dated 14.02.2020 on the subject.

“Ahead of Trump’s visit to Ahmedabad on February 24, the local municipal corporation is building a temporary wall on the sides of the road linking Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport to Indira Bridge to keep slum areas out of sight of the American President and first Lady Melania Trump. “The 6-7 feet high wall is being erected to cover the slum at an estimated 600-metre stretch. This will be followed by plantation drive along the stretch so that the US President will not see the dirtiest places of India,” a senior municipal official said. More than 500 kutcha houses, home to an estimated 2,500 people, are part of the decades-old Dev Saran or Saraniyavaas slum area.”

The lock-down imposed by the government is a step in the right direction, to curb the spread of Corona Virus Disease. At the same time, the Central and State government have not cared about the livelihood of the tens of thousands of migrant workers throughout the country. The government very well knows that the migrant workers lead a “hand to mouth” life. With the lock-down in place, these migrant workers are left high and dry, in various parts of the country, without job and food. The government has done pretty little to take care of their livelihood.  Yesterday, the migrant workers belonging to UP and Bihar gathered in thousands at Bandera railway station, Mumbai, with the hope that the lock-down would be lifted and they could start moving to their native places. However, their hopes were belied and they were lathi-charged and disbursed by the police.

The All India Centre meeting of BSNLEU was held online today. Com.Animesh Mitra, President, presided over the meeting. The meeting was participated in by Com.P.Abhimanyu, GS, Com.Swapan Chakraborty, Dy.GS, Com.R.S. Chauhan, Vice President, Com.Gakul Borah, Treasurer and Com.John Verghese, AGS. 

1. The meeting reviewed the preparations being made for organising the day long dharna, to be organised on 26.06.2020.  A press release is being issued by the CHQ in connection with this dharna. It is decided that this press release should be translated into all regional languages and should be sent to the media at the SSA and Circle levels.
2. The meeting observed deficiency in the functioning of certain circle unions, with regards to implementing the decisions of the higher bodies. The meeting entrusted the responsibility to Com.Animesh Mitra, President and Com.Swapan Chakraborty, Dy.GS, to discuss the matter with the concerned circle secretaries and to overcome the deficiency.
3. The meeting noted with serious concern that, the BSNL Management has arbitrarily changed the date of payment of salary of the employees. Instead of paying the salary on the last working day of every month, it seems that the BSNL Management has decided that it can pay salary to the employees whenever it’s likes. Rs.1,400 crore was earned by BSNL in the month of May, 2020. Whereas, the expenditure for payment of May salary comes to only Rs.350 crore. Still, the salary was not paid till date. While the Management is making payment for all other expenditures, payment of salary to the employees has become it's last priority. The All India Centre meeting decided that the CHQ should take initiative to organise serious struggles to compel the Management to make payment of salary on time.
4. The next meeting of the All India Centre will be held at 15:00 hrs. on 1^st July, 2020.

The Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court has given a landmark judgement, wherein it has stated that, people wanting to agitate in a peaceful way cannot be called traitors, anti-nationals only because they want to oppose one law. The court has stated, “this court wants to express that such persons cannot be called as traitors, anti-nationals only because they want to oppose one law. It will be an act of protest only against the government for the reason of CAA.”

Regarding the right of the citizens to conduct peaceful agitations, the court has also stated as follows:-

“India got freedom due to agitations which were non-violent and this path of non-violence is followed by the people of this country till this date… Unfortunately, many laws which ought to have been scrapped after getting freedom are continued and the bureaucracy is exercising powers under them against citizens of free India.”

[Courtesy: Times of India dated 15.02.2020]

BSNLEU is organising a countrywide dharna programme tomorrow the, 26.06.2020. In this connection, the CHQ of BSNLEU has issued the following press statement. The circle secretaries are requested to translate this press statement in their Regional Languages and to distribute the same to the media at the circle and district levels. CHQ will soon send the Hindi translation of this press statement to the circle secretaries of Hindi speaking circles.

The Supreme Court has pulled up the government of India for not implementing it’s order dated 24.10.2019 on payment of dues by the telecom companies. In it’s order dated 24.10.2019, the Supreme Court laid down the definition for the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR). According to this order, the telecom companies should pay licence fee, spectrum charges, etc., calculated on their total income, and not only on income from core business. According to this order of the Supreme Court, Vodafone Idea has to pay Rs.53,000 crore and Airtel has to pay Rs.35,000 crore. As per the Supreme Court order, the dues from the telecom companies should be paid within 3 months. However, even 4 months after this judgement, the private companies have not paid even a single naya paisa. It has also come to the light that the government has sent an advisory to the concerned officers stating that “no coercive action should be taken until further orders, to collect the dues from telecom companies.” The Supreme Court severely criticised the government for issuing such an advisory.

1) Com.Kum Singh Rawat, Retd. JE, Romnagar, Nainital – Rs.5,100/-

2) Com.Ram Ratan, Retd. TT, Gularbhoj, Nainital – Rs.2,100/-

3) Com. Kailash Pandey, Retd. TT, Dehradun – Rs.2,100/-

4) Com.Puran Singh Bhandari, Retd.TT, Chamba, New Tehri – Rs.2,000/-

5) Com. Jayendra Mohan Pandey, TT, New Tehri – Rs.1,100/-

6) Com. Narayan Singh Bohra, TT, Khatima, Nainital – Rs.1,100/-

7) Com. Kailash Adhikari, JE, Ranikhet, Almora – Rs.1,100/-

8) Com. Vishawakarma, DS, Retd. JE, Bazpur, Nainital – Rs.1,100/-

9) Com. Bhajan Lal, Retd.TT, Bazpur, Nainital – Rs.1,100/-

10) Com. Hari Lal, Retd. TT, Bazpur, Nainital – Rs.1,100/-

11) Com. Udai Singh, Ghugatiyal, DS, Retd. TT, Bazpur, Nainital – Rs.1,100/-

12) Com. Sanjeev Molfo, JTO, Nainital – Rs.1,100/-

13) Com. Jeewan  Singh Khati, Retd. JE, Nainital – Rs.1,100/-

14) Com. Bhagwan Das, Retd. TT, Bazpur, Nainital – Rs.1,100/-

15) Com. Pyar Singh Rawat, Retd. TT, New Tehri – Rs.1,100/-

16) Com. Kirti Dutt Uniyal, Retd. JE, New Tehri – Rs.1,100/-

17) Com. Deep Kumar, Retd. TT, Nainital – Rs.1,100/-

18) Com. Jai Shiv Kumar Chopra, Retd. PA, Haridwar – Rs.1,100/-

19) Com. Deepa Joshi, Circle Vice President, Retd. OS, Almora – Rs.1,100/-

20) Com. Bhagwan Singh Aswal, Retd. OS, Khatima, Nainital – Rs.500/-

The CHQ has prepared matters, to be used for making the placards / posters. Circle and District unions are requested to ensure that the placards / posters are sufficiently displayed during tomorrow’s dharna.

Punjab circle union of BSNLEU, held it’s Executive Committee meeting at Sangrur on 15.02.2020. The meeting was presided over by Com.Balwinder Singh, Vice President. Com.H.S. Dhillon, Circle Secretary, welcomed everyone and submitted the report on activities. All the members of the Executive Committee participated in the deliberations. The meeting reviewed the situation that has arisen out of the implementation of the VRS and took decisions to strengthen the Union in Punjab circle.

1) KALBURGI, 20 Comrades donated – Rs.10,000/-

2) SEWA BSNL, Chikmaglur - Rs.3,000/-

3) Com. Satish Kallannavar, DS, SEWA, Belgavi - Rs.2,000/-

4) Com. Anandaram, Retd. ATM, CGMT, KTK - Rs.1,000/-

5) Com. A.D. Kulkarni, DS, AIBDPA, Hubballi - Rs.1,000/-

6) Com. A.G. Sajjan, Retd. SDE, Kalburgi – Rs.1,000/-

7) Com. P.R. Patil, Retd, Hubballi - Rs.500/-

Based on the press statement issued by BSNLEU, the “National Herald” has written a detailed story on BSNL’s 4G issue and it’s Revival. We reproduce the article hereunder.

1) Com.Naresh Pal, Retd.JE - Rs.2,000/-

2) Com.Ramswarup, Retd. TT - Rs.1,500/-

3) Com. Satish Sharma, Retd.JE - Rs.1,000/-

4) Com.Ramesh Kumar, JE - Rs.1,000/-

5) Com.Nidhish Kumar, TT - Rs.1,000/-

6) Com.Rajendra Singh, JE - Rs.1,000/-

7) Com.Krishan Kumar Siingh, TT - Rs.1,000/-

8) Com.Ganga Singh, Retd.OS - Rs.1,000/-

9) Com.J.P. Shahi, Retd. TT - Rs.1,000/-

10) Com.Mohd. Yaseen, TT - Rs.1,000/-

11) Com.Dinesh Kumar, Retd. TT - Rs.1,000/-

12) Com.Ashok Kumar, Retd.JE - Rs.1000/-

13) Com.Shripal, Retd.TT - Rs.1,000/-

14) Com.Narendrapal, Retd.TT - Rs.1,000/-

15) Com.Radhey Shyam Sharma, JE - Rs.1,100/-

16) Com.Arun Kr. Gupta, Retd JE - Rs.1,000/-

17) Com.Trilokchand, Retd. JE - Rs.1,000/-

18) Com.Shrichand, Retd JE - Rs.1,000/-

19) Com.Lalmani Yadav, Retd TT - Rs.1,000/-

20) Com.Rambeer Singh, TT - Rs.1,000/-

21) Com.Mithilesh Tivari, TT - Rs.1,000/-

22) Com.Dhyan Singh, Retd TT - Rs.500/-

23) Com.Satyaprakash, Retd.TT - Rs.500/-

24) Com.Kashi Ram Yadav, Retd TT - Rs.500/-