CHQ has already announced it's decision to organise an All India Young Workers' Convention. It will take place at Bhopal on 30-09-2018. Apart from CHQ leaders, Dr.Prabhir Purkayasta, a leading social activist, dealing with the matters of technology, will also address the Convention. Quota for mobilisation of the young workers, for the Convention, is being separately communicated to the circle unions. All circle and district unions are requested to start the mobilisation from now onwards, to make the Convention a grand success.

Rajasthan circle union organised a very effective meeting of the circle level functionaries of BSNLEU, at Jaipur, today. Important functionaries, including district secretaries, circle office bearers, branch secretaries, etc., participated in this meeting. The meeting was essentially organised for making mobilisation for the forthcoming “Mazdoor-Kisan Sangarsh Rally”, to be held at New Delhi on 5^th September,2018. Com.B.M Sharma, circle vice-president, presided over. Com.V.P.Sharma, veteran leader, Com.Arun Nigam, Staff-Side Secretary, Circle Council, Com.K.P.Sharma, All India Organising Secretary, AIBDPA and Com.M.K.Nagpal,circle secretary, AIBDPA, were present on the dias. Com.P.K.Jain, district secretary, Jaipur, welcomed everyone. Com. Ashok Pareek, CS, Rajasthan and Com.Vijay Singh, Organising Secretary, delivered the initial address. Com.P.Abhimanyu, GS, addressed the meeting and explained about the need of conducting the “Mazdoor-Kisan Sangarsh Rally”. He explained in detail about the anti-poor and pro-rich Neo Liberal policies being followed by the government. He also threw light on the current issues of Wage Revision, Pension Revision, Subsidiary Tower Company, Allotment of 4G spectrum and Payment of Pension Contribution on actual basic pay. Further, he explained about the recent improvements made by BSNLEU, in the issues of the Non-Executives, like promotion in E1 pay scale for the Non-Executives, settlement of one extra increment to the left out Non-Executives, settlement of the problem of the Sr.TOAs who were downgraded from 7100 pay scale to 6550 pay scale, settlement of gratuity to the casual labourers, improvements made in the issues of the retired employees, one time relaxation to appear in the TT LDCE, for those who do not have 10th standard qualification, etc. It was decided that 300 comrades would participate in the 5^th September rally, from Rajasthan circle. Com.V.P.Sharma, finally addressed the meeting and delivered vote of thanks.

Dr.Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi, the 5 time chief minister of Tamil Nadu, passed away on 07.08.2018, at the age of 94. He was one of the doyens of Indian politics for the past so many decades, Dr.Kalaignar, was a person with very deep knowledge in Tamil literature and a warrior who fought for social justice. He will ever be remembered for his contribution in various fields. BSNLEU pays it’s homage and richest tributes to Dr.Kalaignar. It conveys it’s heartfelt condolences to the family of the departed leader.

BSNLEU is mobilising around 3,500 comrades from various circles, for the Mazdoor Kisan Sangarsh Rally, to be organised at New Delhi on 05^th September, 2018. Quota has already been allotted to various circles, vide CHQ circular no.12 date 31.05.2018. CHQ is also arranging accommodation for the comrades coming from far away circles. Due to non-availability of accommodation, CHQ has been able to book accommodation only for 840 comrades. CHQ has already requested the circle secretaries to inform about the number of comrades coming from their respective circles, to participate in the rally. But, only very few circle secretaries have so far given the figure. CHQ wishes to inform that the accommodation would be provided on the basis of “first-come, first-served” basis. The figures so far given by various circle secretaries are as follows:-

Tamil Nadu               - 300

Madhya Pradesh      - 194

Kerala                        -  65

West Bengal             -  55

Kolkata Telephones – 50

A meeting of the Joint Committee of Wage Revision for the Non-Executives was held today. Shri H.C. Pant, Chairman of the Committee, presided over. All the Staff Side members were present. The Staff Side have already submitted to the Management, their note on the proposed new pay scales. Discussions took place on the note submitted by the Staff Side. The Staff Side members explained how their proposals were arrived at. The Management Side did not come with any proposal. They informed that, their sub-committee appointed for this purpose is working out the details. The Staff Side told the Management Side that the Joint Committee should conduct it’s business in a more speedy manner, or else it will be difficult to complete the task of finalising the wage revision on time. The next date of the Joint Committee is fixed at 27.08.2018.

The Standing Committee of the National Council is meeting today. Implementation of the decisions taken in the last National Council meeting, held on 12.06.2018, will be reviewed in this meeting. Com. Balbir Singh, President, Com. P. Abhimanyu, GS and  Com. Swapan Chakraborty, Dy.GS, are representing BSNLEU in this meeting. Management Side members of the Standing Committee are Shri Saurabgh Tyagi, Sr.GM(Estt.), Ms. Smita Chaudhary, GM (FP), Shri A.M. Gupta, GM(SR) and Shri A.K. Sinha, DGM (SR).

CHQ has already intimated that the next Central Executive Committee meeting will be held on 22nd and 23rd October, 2018. After consultation with certain circle unions, the All India Centre meeting held today, has decided that the Central Executive Committee meeting, to be held on 22nd and 23rd October, 2018, will be held at ALTTC (Training Centre), Ghaziabad. UP(West) circle is hosting this meeting. The members of the CEC are requested to immediately book their journey tickets.

BSNLEU and NFTE have already decided to adopt a common approach, for the early and successful settlement of the Wage Revision of the Non-Executives. The meeting of BSNLEU and NFTE members of the Joint Wage Revision Committee was held on 03.08.2018. Detailed discussions took place on the construction of the new pay scales. Finally, the meeting reached unanimous conclusion on how to construct the new pay scales. It is also decided that the Staff Side should submit a note to the Management Side, ahead of the next Wage Revision Committee meeting, to be held on 09.08.2018. In accordance with this, the following note is submitted today, to the Chairman of the Wage Revision Committee.

The AUAB is trying to have a meeting with the Secretary, Telecom, to find out the status of the implementation of the assurances given by the Hon’ble Minister of State for Communications, in the meeting held on 24.02.2018. However, so far no meeting has been granted to the AUAB, by the Secretary, Telecom. In today’s meeting, the representatives of BSNLEU urged upon the CMD BSNL to use his good office for arranging a meeting between the AUAB and the Secretary, Telecom. Representatives of BSNLEU pointed out to the CMD BSNL that, in the past also, the CMDs of BSNL have played crucial role in arranging meetings between the Unions and Associations of BSNL and the Secretary, Telecom. The CMD BSNL accepted this demand and assured that expeditious action would be taken in this regard.

In the meeting held between the AUAB and the Hon’ble Minister of State for Communications, on 24.02.2018, it was assured by the latter that, a Cabinet Note would be prepared for the consideration of the Cabinet, seeking exemption for the BSNL employees, from the affordability clause of the 3rd PRC. However, the Cabinet Note has not yet been prepared by the DoT, even after the lapse of 5 months. Under these circumstances, the AUAB has organised demonstrations and 3 day relay hunger strike last month throughout the country. A meeting between the Hon’ble MoS (C) and the AUAB was also held on 01.08.2018. In this backdrop, it is reliably learnt that, the DoT is now on the job of preparing the Cabinet Note.

BSNLEU has already written to the CMD BSNL, demanding re-engagement of the contract workers, who were recently retrenched as per the directive of the BSNL Corporate Office. The Union has suggested that on re-engagement, these contract workers can be redeployed in the sales and marketing area. The Union has also suggested that this will be a win-win situation both for the retrenched contract workers and the Company. BSNLEU has discussed this issue with the CMD BSNL and the Director (HR). In today’s meeting held with the  CMD BSNL, the representatives of BSNLEU enquired about the status of this issue. The CMD BSNL informed that the suggestion of the Union is being looked into, and that a decision in this regard would be taken soon.

The Delhi High Court has set aside the increase in minimum wage, from Rs.9,500/- per month to Rs.13,500/- per month, done by the Delhi State Government. There are large number of industries in and around Delhi, employing tens of thousands of workers. Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, has expressed his serious concern that, the decision of the Delhi High Court to nullify the wage increase done by the Delhi State Government, will seriously affect the interests of the workers.

[Source: Times of India, 06.08.2018]

Following the Kathua, Unao and Chennai rape incidents, another heart-rending episode involving the rape of minor children has come to the fore. 34 helpless minor girls, aged between 7 and 17, housed in a shelter at Muzaffarpur, Bihar, have been subjected to rape, over a long period. Most of them are speech-impaired children. It is reported that these children’s are given sedatives with dinner, and then raped in the night. Prime accused of this case, Brajesh Thakur, who is running the home, is said to be close to the politicians. The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has unearthed this crime. The episode of innocent children getting subjected to rape continues unabated. When so much noise is being made in this country to protect cows, who is there to protect these daughters of mother India.