Today’s Times of India has reported that a Muslim man from Gopalganj district, Bihar, broke his roza (fasting) to save the life of an 8 year old Hindu boy. The boy, Punit by name, is suffering from Thalassemia for the past 7 years. He needs blood transfusion once in every 15 days. So far, friends and relatives of the boy’s family were donating blood. On last Tuesday, Punit suddenly experienced a drop in his haemoglobin level and required immediate blood transfusion. There was no one to donate A +ve blood to him. Alam Jawed, is a clerk working in the District Education Office, who is a member of the District Blood Donors’ team, with A +ve blood group. When Punit’s father approached Alam Jawed for blood donation, he willingly came forward to donate his blood. For this, he had to break his roza (fasting). “Believing in religion is one thing, but humanity is a bigger thing”, said Alam Jawed after donating blood. At a time when some people are becoming mad in the name of religion, and killing each other, there are good hearted people like Alam Jawed, who consider that humanity is bigger than religion.

Com. P. Abhimanyu, GS, met Shri Sourabh Tyagi, GM (Estt.), today and discussed the following issues:-

1. Granting first promotion under NEPP, on completion of 4 years, to the TSMs regularised after 01.10.2000.

BSNLEU is continuously demanding implementation of the court judgement that, the TSMs regularised as RM on or after 01.10.2000, should be granted their first promotion under NEPP, on completion of 4 years. Even though the Corporate Office has accepted BSNLEU’s proposal in principle, no settlement of the issue has come, since the Corporate Office has called for inputs from circles, and that most of the circles have not sent the required inputs. In today’s meeting, the General Secretary, insisted that the Corporate Office itself should issue order on this matter, without waiting for the inputs from the circles. During today’s discussion, the GM (Estt.) informed the General Secretary that the matter was simultaneously referred to the DoT, since it involves the element of pension also. It seems the DoT has raised certain objections. The GM (Estt.) told that Corporate Office is working on this issue and assured to try it’s best for the early solution of the issue.

2. Issuing of Presidential Orders to the TSMs who directly became Telecom Technicians.

BSNLEU is continuously demanding that the TSMs who directly became Telecom Technicians should be issued with Presidential Orders. Even though the Management has already accepted this, the circles have been asked to inform the number of such candidates from their respective circle. In today’s meeting the GM (Estt.) informed that, still the inputs are awaited from some circles, such as Madhya Pradesh and UP (East). He assured to gather the information from the remaining circles also, so that the cases would be forwarded to the DoT, for the issuing of the Presidential Orders.

The AUAB, Tamil Nadu circle, organised a very effective joint meeting at CGM office today. Com.Natarajan, CS, NFTE & Chairman, AUAB, presided over the meeting. Com.S.Chellappa, AGS, BSNLEU & Convenor, AUAB, welcomed the leaders and the gathering. Com.P.Abhimanyu, GS, BSNLEU & Convenor, AUAB, Com.Chandeswar Singh, GS, NFTE & Chairman, AUAB, Com. Sivakumar, President, AIBSNLEA and Com. Rajan, Treasurer (CHQ), SNEA addressed and explained the decisions reached in the meeting held between the Hon'ble MoS(C) and the AUAB, on 03-12-2018. The leaders explained the issues fully and also replied the questions raised in the meeting.

A National Convention of Workers, organised by Central Trade Unions, is held at Constitution Club Annexe at New Delhi today. It was presided overby Com.Vijaylakshmi, INTUC, Com. Hemalata, CITU and the Presidents of AITUC,HMS,AIUTUC,TUCC,SEWA,AICCTU,LPF and UTUC. At the outset, the convention observed one minute's silence and paid homage to the 42 CRPF jawans, killed by the extremists at Pulwama. Based on the draft resolution placed in the convention, leaders from central trade unions addressed. Com Ashok Singh, INTUC, Com Amarjit Kaur, AITUC, Com Tapan Sen, CITU and other leaders from central trade unions addressed the convention. Finally, the convention approved a 43 point workers charter and unanimously decided to raise those issues during the 17th general election and to ensure that the anti-worker and anti-people BJP is defeated.

The State Bank of India has once again become profit making. For the 3 months quarter ended in March 2019, the State Bank of India has made a net profit of Rs.838 crore. It must be remembered that, State Bank of India ran into a loss of Rs.7,718 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. State Bank of India went into loss, mainly because of the writing off of the bad loans. The big corporates take loans from the public sector banks and never repay them. The government, instead of making the corporates to repay the loans, write them off. During the last five years, the Narendra Modi government has written off bad loans to tune of Rs.5 lakh crore. 

The entire BSNL contract workers of Tamil Nadu circle have started a 3 day strike, commencing from today the 26th September, 2019. The call is given by the Tamil Nadu Telecom Contract Workers Union (TNTCWU). The demands of the strike are immediate payment of wage arrears of the past 8 months and withdrawal of the Corporate Office orders on retrenchment of the contract workers, as well as reduction of their working hours. The strike is total in Tamil Nadu since 100% of the BSNL contract workers have joined with strike. The striking workers have organised demonstrations in many places. Further, they are also meeting the Hon’ble Members of the Parliament and submitting memorandum to them. They also met Com.Sitaram Yechury, General Secretary, CPI(M) who is on a visit to Puducherry, and submitted a memorandum to him.

The unified trade union movement of BSNL, under the single banner of “The Unions and Associations of BSNL”, is taking on the government today, demanding settlement the 3rd wage revision and to stop the formation of Subsidiary Tower Company. Today's demonstration is only a wake up call to the government. It has to ensure peaceful settlement of the issues, by accepting the justified demands. Otherwise, the employees of BSNL will be left with no other option, but to intensify the struggles. Settlement of both the demands, is a must for the future of the employees, and for the prosperity of the BSNL. Hence, CHQ calls upon our leaders and active comrades to leave no stone unturned, for the total success of the struggles. Unity is the only weapon in our hands, while the government has many weapons. Hence, all our comrades are requested to take utmost care and efforts to strengthen unity.

BSNL has made a tie-up with the Tata Communications, for providing unlimited data, through Wi-Fi hotspots to it’s customers while on international roaming. With this tie-up, BSNL’s customers can get access to 44 million Wi-Fi hotspots in various countries world over. This facility will be provided by BSNL at fixed tariff, priced at Rs.999/- for three days, Rs.1,599/- for 15 days and Rs.1,999/- for 30 days. BSNL is the first mobile operator in India to provide such a facility to the customers going abroad. Tata Communications has a global network of submarine cable and provides connectivity to more than 240 countries.

Petrol and diesel prices have increased for the 11^th day in a row. In many cities the petrol price has crossed Rs.80/-. For example, in Mumbai the price is Rs.85.65, in Kolkata Rs.80.47, in Chennai Rs.80.80, in Hyderabad it is Rs.82.45 and so on. Taxes are a major component in the prices of petrol and diesel. Even when the price of crude oil was very low, during the past few years, the government looted the people by levying taxes to the tune of lakhs of crores of rupees. Now, when the crude oil price has started increasing in the international market, there is no other go for the government, but to immediately cut down the taxes to give relief to the common man.

The ICICI bank, which has been projected as a model of the new generation banks, has gone into loss. The bank has reported a loss of Rs.120 crore for the first quarter of 2018, ie., for the period from April to June, 2018. ICICI bank has earned a profit of Rs.2,049 crore for the same period in 2017. This is the first time that ICICI bank has gone into loss since 2002.

As per the Union Constitution, delegates for the All India Conference, will be allocated only to the district unions, based on the CHQ quota received from them. After the introduction of ERP, circles are sending the CHQ quota in bulk, without break-up figures for the quota related to the individual district unions. Hence, CHQ has been requesting the circle unions to send the break-up figures, for quota remitted by each district union. However, it is unfortunate that still the following circles have not sent the break-up figures. Hence, CHQ is unable to announce the All India Conference delegates, entitled to the district unions of those circles. Hence, the following circle secretaries are requested to immediately send to the CHQ, the details related to district wise quota remittances for the years 2016 & 2017. Otherwise, the district unions of these circles will not get any delegate for the All India Conference. CHQ requests to treat this as most urgent.

1. Bihar
2. Haryana
3. J&K
4. Rajasthan
5. Chhattisgarh
6. Jharkhand
7. NTR
8. UP(East)
9. TF Jabalpur

The campaign for the General Strike, to be held on 8^th & 9^th January, 2019 has started in West Bengal circle. On 27th December, 2018 a rally was organised in Kolkata, which culminated into a gate meeting at CGMT office. A good number of workers, both regular, as well as casual and contract, participated in the rally and the gate meeting. It was addressed by Com. Animesh Mitra, Circle Secretary, Com. Amitava Chattopadhyay, Asstt. Circle Secretary, Com. Goutam Das, District Secretary, BSNLCMU and Com. Tapas Ghosh, Circle Secretary, BSNLCMU. Flex boards, carrying the demands for the General Strike are extensively displayed at CTO building. Similar programme was organised by BSNLEU, Malda District.

As per the decisions of the CEC meetings, BSNLEU is observing International Women’s Day on 8th March of every year. CHQ has already called upon our circle and district unions to observe this year’s International Women’s Day in a befitting manner. CHQ wishes to tell that, this programme should not be observed in a routine manner. It should be utilised to highlight the ‘denial of equal right’ to women in our society. A lot of atrocities are being committed against women in our country. The Thomson Reuters Foundation, in it's report submitted on 19th June, 2018, has declared that India is the most dangerous country for women in the world, in the matters of health care, access to economic resources and discrimination, customary practices, sexual violence, non-sexual violence and human trafficking. It is the duty of the working class movement to fight against all these injustices against women. CHQ calls upon the circle and district unions to observe this year’s International Women’s Day effectively, by highlighting these issues.

There is acute delay in the payment of wages of contract workers and casual labourers throughout the country. Wages are not paid to these workers for the past 4 months, due to the non-allotment of funds by the Corporate Office. BSNLEU has already drawn the attention of the Director (Finance) in this regard, by writing a letter. In continuation of this, Com.P.Abhimanyu, GS, met Shri S.K. Gupta, Director (Finance), today, and discussed the issue at length. The GS told the Director (Finance) that the families of contract and casual workers are in starvation and requested to do the needful immediately, by releasing funds to the circles. The Director (Finance) replied that he is sympathetic to the workers, but told that the Corporate Office is having acute shortage of funds. However, he assured to look into this issue and to do the needful.

महाराष्ट्र सर्किल यूनियन का दिल से आभार...
BSNLEU की एक्सटेंडेड सेंट्रल एग्जीक्यूटिव कमिटी मीटिंग के आयोजन से सभी डिस्ट्रिक्ट सेक्रेटरीज, सर्किल सेक्रेटरीज और सीएचक्यू ऑफिस बेयरर्स पूर्णतः संतुष्ट हुए। महाराष्ट्र सर्किल यूनियन द्वारा मीटिंग हॉल, रहने और खाने की उत्कृष्ट व्यवस्था की गई थी। बेहतरीन व्यवस्थाओं की वजह से मीटिंग में शामिल साथियों के लिए बेहद माकूल माहौल में चर्चाएं करना और उपयोगी निर्णय लेना सहज हो गया। यहां, यह बताना भी जरूरी है कि महाराष्ट्र सर्किल यूनियन द्वारा तीसरी बार एक्सटेंडेड सेंट्रल एग्जीक्यूटिव कमिटी मीटिंग का आयोजन किया गया है। BSNLEU CHQ कॉम एन के नलावड़े के प्रभावी नेतृत्व में कार्यरत महाराष्ट्र सर्किल यूनियन की हृदय से आभारी है।

On 23rd September, 2019, the General Secretary and the Deputy General Secretary of BSNLEU met Shri P.K.Purwar, CMD BSNL, and suggested that the Management should immediately hold a meeting with all the unions and associations, to discuss the developmental activities. BSNLEU has also suggested that all the unions and associations functioning in BSNL should be invited for that meeting.  This suggestion was given in view of the fact that the financial condition of the Company is deteriorating fast and also the representatives of the employees are totally kept in the dark with regards to the steps being taken by the Management, to improve the financial position of the Company. The CMD BSNL was very positive to the suggestion given by BSNLEU and assured to hold such a meeting promptly. Now, BSNLEU has come to know from the SR Branch of the Corporate Office that, steps are being taken by the Management to hold the meeting in the first week of October. BSNLEU has also suggested that all the unions and associations functioning in BSNL should be invited for that meeting.

The CHQ is extremely saddened to hear that, Com.M.S. Raja, former Secretary General of Audit and Accounts Employees Federation, passed away yesterday, following a massive heart attack at his residence in Kerala.

   Com.M.S. Raja had also been the working president of the Confederation of Central Government Employees. He was one of the frontline All India leaders of the Central Government Employees movement. He has led many struggles, undergoing attacks and victimisations. He had also been actively associated with the united trade union movement at the national level and had played important role in organising the struggles called on by the Central Trade Unions.

     BSNLEU dips it’s banner and pays it’s respectful homage to Com.M.S. Raja and conveys it’s heartfelt condolences to his family members, friends and comrades.